A New Paradigm for Ocean Pelagics: A Case Study of the Bycatch Triangle

Recent research has provided strong evidence for the important ecological role of megafauna in terrestrial, aquatic and marine systems via both consumptive and non-consumptive effects. Despite this increased knowledge, megafauna populations continue to decline as a result of human activities. Although these declines have been linked to the direct and indirect effects of resource and land use, we have little information on how human activities mediate these declines in large part because of the challenges associated with detecting, monitoring and quantifying the impact of these activities on these difficult-to-study species. Using fisheries bycatch as a case study, I present a suite of novel quantitative approaches that demonstrates the utility of integrating species ecology, oceanography and human activities to detect, monitor and quantify the impact of fisheries bycatch on marine megafauna. The research presents a new paradigm that places human impacts on large pelagic species into an oceanographic, ecological and anthropogenic context.