Bycatch

Okay kiddo, have you ever gone fishing with your family? When people go fishing, they usually have a certain kind of fish they want to catch. But sometimes, they end up catching other kinds of fish that they didn't want or didn't mean to catch. This is called bycatch.

Imagine going to a store to buy some apples, but when you get home, you find out that you also grabbed a bunch of bananas without even noticing. That's kind of what bycatch is like.

When people go fishing for a specific kind of fish, sometimes other kinds of fish or even animals can get caught in their fishing nets or traps. This accidentally catching of other animals is called bycatch.

Bycatch can be a big problem because it can harm animals that are not meant to be caught. It's not fair to those animals to be caught and possibly hurt or killed just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Some fishermen try to reduce bycatch by using different kind of nets or fishing gear that only catch the specific kind of fish they want. They also try to throw back any bycatch that they catch as safely and quickly as possible.

By being more careful when fishing, we can help make sure that only the fish we need get caught.