A test deployment of lineless fishing gear last month off the coast of Newfoundland brought to life a more than four-decade dream of biologist Michael Moore — and in a way, the test brought those dreams home.
Moore, director of the Marine Mammal Center at the US-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, said his career was heavily influenced by the late Newfoundland marine biologist John Lien. Lien was known for developing techniques to free whales caught in fishing lines, and he freed hundreds of animals over the course of his career.
Moore said Lien first told him about the whale-saving potential of lineless fishing gear four decades ago during a trip to Newfoundland.
“Forty-three years later, his hope and his prophecy are coming true,” Moore said in a recent interview with Lien. “It’s very special.”
Lineless fishing technology is still in its infancy, but there are high hopes among scientists and fishermen that it will lead to fewer whales entangled in fishing lines and help fishermen.
Efforts to implement the new fishing methods are focused on the endangered North Atlantic right whale, of which there are only about 336 left in the world.
John Lien rescues a whale from fishing gear in this undated photo.
Moore authored a 2020 study suggesting that 85 percent of right whale deaths between 2010 and 2015 were caused by fishing gear entanglement. Scientists like Moore hope that widespread adoption of tetherless equipment will limit these entanglements and allow the species to recover.
Last month, acoustic technology developed by Jasco Applied Sciences was fitted to crab and lobster traps that were deployed off the coast of Harbor Breton and just outside St. John’s Harbor. The test was launched through a partnership between Jasco, the Washington, D.C.-based non-profit Marine Mammal Education Technology Society, and the commercial fishing branch of the Miawpukek First Nation.
Fishermen can drop the traps into the water and find them again by beeping, Jasco engineering manager John Moloney said. The traps are equipped with inflatable bladders that fishermen can trigger when it’s time to bring them to the surface.
Traditional traps are attached to buoys with long lines that float vertically in the water, and passing whales can become entangled in the lines. Without long fishing lines, there are fewer dangers lurking in the water.
Whales also become entangled in what is called “ghost gear”—massive tangles of nets that have come loose and are left to drift endlessly in the water.
A ghostly piece of equipment has been pulled from the water. (DFO)
Lineless traps will have a much higher recovery rate than traditional gear, Moloney said. And if the trap is lost, it won’t be attached to dangerous ropes, he added.
The Jasco technology is also being tested in the United States, Moloney said. Some of these tests involve a group called the Ropeless Consortium, of which Moore is a part.
Both Moloney and Moore said they agree that the cost of cordless equipment is currently a barrier to its widespread use, but Moloney said Jasco’s technology will make it more affordable. He also said that ropeless traps will last about 10 seasons, while traditional rigs are often only used for one.
There are also bureaucratic hurdles to line-less technology: The federal Department of Fisheries supports its development, but has yet to figure out how to regulate it, Moloney said.
Still, he thinks the technology is going well.
“I believe that in 10 years, when you start talking about line fishing, people are just going to look at you as weird,” Moloney said. “It will certainly replace line fishing.”
Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador
Add Comment