Bycatch Reduction Calculator

It divides the BRD's purchase cost by the fine savings generated on a single trip, then rounds up to the next whole trip (a trip that partially covers the remaining cost still counts as a full trip). It only counts avoided regulatory fines — it doesn't credit reduced gear damage from less non-target catch tangled in the net, faster on-deck sorting time, or any sustainability-certification value, so the real payback on a BRD is often faster than this figure alone suggests.

Set the bycatch penalty to $0 and the fine savings and trips-to-payback outputs both collapse to zero, since fineSavingsPerTrip is calculated directly from that per-kilogram rate. The bycatch-saved and remaining-bycatch figures are unaffected because they only depend on catch weight, bycatch percentage, and device reduction — so in a no-fine fishery, use those weight-based numbers to judge the device, not the dollar figures.

The device reduction percentage is applied as a flat multiplier to current bycatch on every calculation, with no variability built in for species mix, water clarity, gear wear, or crew technique — all of which affect a real BRD's actual field performance. Treat the reduction percentage you enter as the device's best-case rated efficiency, and expect real results to run somewhat below it, especially with older or poorly maintained gear.

The calculator first finds reduced bycatch in kilograms (current bycatch times one minus the device's reduction rate), then divides that by total catch weight to get the new bycatch percentage. Because total catch is held constant in this model, the new percentage is a direct, proportional shrink of the original bycatch rate — it doesn't account for the possibility that catching less bycatch might free up net capacity for more target-species catch.