Non-target salmon bycatch in trawl and net fisheries reduces populations and causes individual welfare harm.
Salmon bycatch creates welfare harm for individual fish caught in trawls targeting other species — stress, physical injury, and death. Critically, bycatch depletes populations of wild salmon that are often already severely depleted, removing fish that could otherwise complete their migrations and reproduce. The welfare impact extends beyond the individual caught fish to the population-level effects on future individuals who would have lived but do not because of accelerated population decline. Bycatch reduction technology and real-time fleet management have been demonstrated to work — the barriers to adoption are economic and regulatory rather than technical.