National Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program (BREP) - FY2026/27
Funds designing and testing fishing gear that reduces bycatch and post-release deaths in US commercial and recreational fisheries.
Fish and shrimp nets don't just catch the target species. Untargeted bycatch can drive overfishing, hurt threatened and endangered species, and even force fishery closures — and this program exists to build gear that catches less of what nobody wanted.
The money funds developing and testing technological devices and other conservation-engineering changes that cut bycatch and reduce the deaths of …
Developing and testing fishing gear and other conservation-engineering devices that reduce bycatch and post-release mortality of non-target species in US commercial and recreational fisheries, including aquaculture, under the Magnuson-Stevens Act's requirement that NOAA minimise bycatch.
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