Compensatory mitigation as a solution to fisheries bycatch–biodiversity conservation conflicts

Globally, fisheries catch of non-target species has major environmental impacts, resulting in social conflict, litigation, and fisheries closures. We use a bio-economic approach to demonstrate that compensatory mitigation – an innovative, market-influenced approach to fishery–conservation conflicts – can facilitate high-value uses of biological resources and cost-effective conservation gains for species of concern. We illustrate the strategy with a seabird example: levying fishers for their bycatch and using the funds to remove invasive mammals from breeding islands. Removal of invasive predators is 23 times more effective from a return-on-investment perspective (ie percent increase in population growth per dollar invested) in comparison to fisheries closures, and is more socio-politically feasible. A bycatch levy, which would increase with endangerment, provides an individual incentive for avoiding bycatch, the most effective mechanism for sustainable management of fisheries. Compensatory mitigation provides an opportunity to address a global concern, optimize conservation interventions, and forge an alliance between conservation and fisheries organizations.