Reply to Horswill and Manica: FTLE is one of a suite of oceanographic variables useful for predicting bycatch risk in marine fisheries

Horswill and Manica (1) provide a useful extension to Scales et al. (2), quantifying the relative risk of bycatch for each swordfish caught at several values of backward-in-time Finite-Time Lyapunov Exponent (FTLEb), a parameter derived from ocean surface velocity that identifies aggregative features known as Lagrangian coherent structures (LCS). We concur that the catch ratio of target to nontarget species with respect to the location of these structures is a useful measure for guiding spatial bycatch mitigation strategies in marine fisheries, but we want to highlight some aspects of Horswill and Manica’s response that require clarification.

First, Horswill and Manica (1) combine all nontarget species …

[↵][1]1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: kscales{at}usc.edu.au.

[1]: #xref-corresp-1-1