The damaging of the seas is now one of the world's gravest environmental problems, according to a new report by a group of distinguished scientists who have studied one of the world's key fishing grounds: the North East Atlantic. The team travelled around Europe, visited the US and gathered additional evidence from Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Their conclusion is that fishing activity in t...

Methodology We attempted to document all available information on fishing techniques that have been used to reduce non-target wildlife species bycatch in world fisheries. Information on bycatch reduction methods is highly diffuse and for this review we consulted various sources including journal articles, unpublished government reports, and experts in the field. A number of reviews have examine...

Recreational fishing in freshwater ecosystems is a popular pastime in Australia. Although most native fish are endemic, the fauna is depauperate compared to any landmass of similar size. With commercial fishing no longer a major industry in the country’s freshwaters, the future sustainability of these ecosystems will depend heavily on the actions of recreational fishers. However, there has been...

Slooten et al. (1) claim the survey respondents from New Zealand, one of 28 countries considered in our paper in PNAS (2), were strongly biased toward the fishing industry. The six survey responses comprised a range of background experience: three government/science respondents (added here as coauthors), including the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research’s Chief Scientist–Fisher...