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REBYC stands for Reduction of Environmental Impact from Tropical Shrimp Trawling, through the Introduction of Bycatch Reduction Technologies and Change of Management.

This programme, co-funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), was designed with the objective of minimizing the capture and discard of unwanted catch and bycatch, and the impact of shrimp-trawling on bottom habitat. 

Three REBYC projects have been implemented from 2002 until today in 18 countries focusing on bottom trawling, where bycatch issues are amongst the most serious, which may negatively affect ecosystems and therefore livelihoods. 

Lessons learnt from the first two REBYC projects were been taken into account in the design of the third and present REBYC-II LAC project which was selected as one of the good practice examples from the GEF project portfolio.    

A next phase REBYC III project is currently being considered to achieve further reduction of unwanted and incidental bycatch in fisheries of the Caribbean and Latin American region. Whilst previous projects focused on reducing unwanted bycatches in trawl fisheries, the new project will be extended to include other fishing gears.  

Further information about previous REBYC projects are available on their dedicated websites:  

• REBYC 2002-2008 
• REBYC-II CTI 2011-2014 
• REBYC-II LAC 2015-2020