Rope-less fishing technology development

Authors
Partan, J. and K. Ball
Year
Journal/Publisher Name
Final grant report to the Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch Reduction under NOAA Award # NA10NMF4520343 to the New England Aquarium, Boston, USA
Page #s
109-152
Contact information
jpartan@whoi.edu, kball@whoi.edu,
Department of Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering
Summary

This article describes the design and fabrication of a prototype rope-less fishing system that might be used in the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery. Rope-less fishing gear, which secures vertical fishing lines to the bottom until they are released for hauling, is a potential mitigation measure to reduce vertical line entanglements of marine mammals including North Atlantic right whales, along with leatherback sea turtles. The prototypes consists of a flotation line spool capable of holding up to 900 m of 1/2 in line. The spool is secured to a lobster trawl by a mechanical release that can be triggered for hauling either using a digital timer or acoustic transponder. In addition to the rope-less prototype, the study conducted a preliminary investigation on the passive acoustic detectability of rope-less gear.

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