Preventing Pacific white-sided dolphin by-catch

Small cetaceans in British Columbia waters are often caught in salmon gillnet fisheries, but Canada does not have a law to identify when management action is necessary to reduce cetacean by-catch below sustainable limits. SeaDoc funded Dr. Rob Williams and colleagues to determine if small cetacean by-catch was exceeding sustainable numbers. This work illustrated that fisheries by-catch of Pacific white-sided dolphins was too high, so Canada is now actively working to monitor cetacean populations and by-catch to ensure that fisheries are not affecting these species.

• Potential limits to anthropogenic mortality of small cetaceans in coastal waters of British Columbia