Summary
This study investigated bycatch events in the northern South China Sea through interviews of fishers. The majority of interviewed fishers reported an estimated 7,464 annual bycatch events, with sea turtles encountered most commonly followed by Indo-Pacific finless porpoises, whale sharks, and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins. The gear most associated with bycatch were gillnets, trawl nets, and seine nets. Modeling suggests that bycatch may be influenced by distance from the coast and water depth for marine mammals and sea turtles, but by administrative region for whale sharks.