How can we remove buoy lines from the water column?

Fishermen, engineers, and scientists are working together to test and develop fishing gear that has no buoy lines in the water column to save the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. There are less than 400 North Atlantic Right Whales left in the world and many right whale deaths can be attributed to entanglement.

Currently, fixed-gear fisheries set traps, pots, barrels, or nets on the ocean bottom marked with lines attached to surface buoys or floats; it may be hours, days, or weeks before retrieval. Consequently, protected species may become entangled causing fishermen to lose gear and face increased regulatory restrictions as well as closures of rich fishing grounds.

#ropeless #endangeredspecies #fisheries

Learn more at https://ropeless.org/

Animations created by Natalie Renier, WHOI

© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution