bycatch

plural bycatches · alternative by-catch

1. countableuncountableAny fish (or other creatures) that are not targeted as a catch but are unintentionally caught, and often discarded back into the sea.

   Some offer him bags of bycatch—fish too small or net-mangled to sell, rays and seahorses few will want, and so on.

   2022, N. K. Jemisin, The World We Make, Orbit, page 107

   1 more example

   The nets come up full for once. Jumbo brown shrimp, […] The fish we keep too, […] Among the bycatch is a gorgeous sea slug with a silvery, narrow body no longer than an inch and six dark-blue appendages that reach out like fingers.

   2025, Trang Thanh Tran, They Bloom at Night, →ISBN, page 35

2. countableuncountableAny person, animal, or thing, captured unintentionally on camera or film.

present singular third person bycatches · participle present bycatching · participle past bycaught · past bycaught · alternative by-catch

1. transitiveTo catch unintentionally while fishing for something else.