7 September 2026: The report of the latest meeting of the By-Catch Working Group and its risk mapping project has been published
The NAMMCO Working Group on By-catch (BYCWG) has published a new report on its ongoing by-catch risk mapping project, which aims to identify where fishing activity and marine mammal distributions overlap in the North Atlantic. The project, funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ AG-Fisk programme and NAMMCO, was launched in 2024 and supports the development of tools to help improve by-catch assessment and therefore mitigation across the North Atlantic.
Using fishing effort data and distribution information for multiple marine mammal species, the project produces maps of potential by-catch exposure risk by area, season and gear type. The Working Group stressed that the current maps are preliminary but could become an important tool for targeting by-catch monitoring, research and mitigation measures.
The report also highlights the need for improved data, particularly on fishing effort and species distribution, and recommends the development of an interactive platform to make the project’s outputs more accessible to managers, researchers and the public.
Read the full report in the report library.