UK Bycatch Monitoring Programme

The UK Bycatch Monitoring Programme (BMP) is a multi-taxa, multi-gear bycatch data collection programme. The BMP was established by Professor Simon Northridge in 1995, initially to collect data on harbour porpoise bycatch in gillnet fisheries in the North Sea. In the late 1990’s the geographical scope of the of the programme extended to include UK Atlantic and English Channel waters, and data collection also began in midwater trawl fisheries where there were thought to be interactions with dolphins in some areas.

In 2005 the programme was formalised and further expanded to meet the requirements of domestic and EU legislation/policy. Data collection subsequently began in other gear types including longline and purse seine/ring net fisheries.

In 2022 the BMP transitioned from a single institution (University of St Andrews) programme to a consortium based programme that includes four scientific organisations: the University of St Andrews, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), Marine Scotland Science (MSS), the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) and two fishing industry representative organisations: the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) and the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation. This consortium brings together a unique group of organisations with unparalleled knowledge and experience of the UK fishing industry, fisheries management, biological and ecological expertise for relevant taxa, implementation of at-sea bycatch data collection, monitoring approaches, bycatch mitigation trials and bycatch assessment methodologies.

Under the new BMP consortium, bycatch data collection has also been improved for demersal trawl/seine fisheries, meaning that most major gear types used in the UK are now being routinely monitored for Endangered, Threatened and Protected (ETP) species bycatch.

The BMP dataset is one of the largest, most detailed and most comprehensive bycatch datasets in the Northeast Atlantic and is regularly used in national and international scale bycatch risk and mortality assessments, the results of which are used to inform and support fisheries and environmental sustainability objectives.

The BMP is funded by the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate.