Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce the levels of sea life unintended to be caught which get caught in fish lines.

Minister Hardy attended the launch of Wildlife and Countryside Link’s “Hidden in the Haul” report. The department is considering the report’s detail.

To understand and address bycatch, Defra funds a range of initiatives including:

• The Bycatch Monitoring Programme, which reports annually on bycatch rates analysed by fishing gear type.
• The Cefas fisheries observer programme which uses scientific observers on vessels to collect data about bycatch.
• The Clean Catch programme, which works collaboratively with UK fishers to gather data on bycatch and develop and trial mitigation measures.
• The Bycatch Risk Prioritisation Framework project which aims to provide quantitative and spatial information on bycatch risk per region for sensitive marine species and will inform strategic decision-making about further monitoring and mitigation of bycatch.
• Developing a Seabird Bycatch Action Plan for England with stakeholders, including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, to address seabird bycatch in English waters.