Commercial fishing for salmon inadvertently catches and injures or kills non-target species including marine mammals, seabirds, and other fish with significant welfare implications.
Marine mammals caught in fishing gear experience acute terror and a prolonged drowning death. A dolphin or porpoise entangled in a gillnet cannot surface to breathe and will drown over several minutes - a death involving intense respiratory distress and panic. Seals and sea lions may survive entanglement but sustain severe injuries from the gear cutting into their bodies. The welfare implications extend to the scale: millions of marine mammals are estimated to die in fishing gear globally each year. These are intelligent, social animals with cognitive complexity comparable to or exceeding that of dogs. The development and adoption of bycatch reduction technology represents a significant wildlife welfare intervention available to the fishing industry.