Compensatory mitigation for marine bycatch will do harm, not good

Many argue that we must embrace market incentives to effectively conserve species. Following this trend, Wilcox and Donlan (Front Ecol Environ 2007; 55[[66]]: 325–331) propose economically-based compensatory mitigation for marine bycatch (CMMB), in which lucrative fishing and associated bycatch are allowed to continue with compensatory fees paid to fund conservation actions on the terrestrial islands where some marine species breed. Wilcox and Donlan illustrate this approach with a seabird example but suggest CMMB is broadly applicable. CMMB represents a major paradigm shift in existing strategies for reducing impacts of marine bycatch via gear modification, seasonal and area closures, and, in some cases, fishery closures. Despite the lack of pilot data, efforts are underway in national and international policy arenas to advocate the CMMB approach (http://advancedconservation.org). Given the potential speed of this policy shift – and its obvious allure for the fishing industry – we outline why CMMB could only rarely succeed in reducing or offsetting the effects of marine bycatch mortality and would often worsen bycatch impacts: