Bycatch, as used in the present study, is the incidental catch of nontarget organisms that occurs to some extent in almost all commercial fi sheries (Alverson, 1994). Some of these incidentally caught organisms may be protected species—such as marine mammals, marine turtles, and seabirds—or they may be fish or invertebrates that are either harvested as target species by other fi sheries, or spe...