Pots/Traps

Description

Whale entanglement in fishing gear is a growing conservation and fisheries management challenge along the U.S. West Coast, with a marked increase in confirmed cases since 2014. Contributing factors include recovering whale populations, climate-related shifts in whale migration and prey distribution, changes in fishing effort, and increased public awareness and reporting. Most entanglements in this region, where fixed-gear fisheries, such as trap/pot and gillnet fisheries, are active. While the specific gear involved is often unknown, the majority of confirmed cases have involved Dungeness crab gear.

An emerging approach to reducing entanglement risk while maintaining fishing access is the use of pop-up or on-demand fishing gear, which allows fishermen to retrieve traps without relying vertical buoy lines connected to a surface buoy. The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation is working with commercial fishermen to test and refine on-demand gear fishing gear that has the potential to reduce the risk of whale entanglement along the U.S. West Coast fixed-gear fisheries. Data and insights generated through this work will support voluntary adoption by fishermen, provide gear manufacturers with performance feedback and suggestions for improvement, and inform regulatory efforts to reduce the impacts of fishery closures due to entanglement risk.

FishSource Profile: Dungeness crab, California

Description

In 2022, the Canadian Wildlife Federation established the CanFISH Gear Lending Program, which removes barriers to the adoption of on-demand fishing gear including financial constraints, accessibility issues, permitting to use the gear, and inexperience with the technologies, all which currently hinder harvesters from maintaining their catches and livelihoods when closures are implemented to protect North Atlantic right whales. Since the outset of the program, the distribution of North Atlantic right whales and therefore fisheries closures have changed from year to year. While significant outreach surrounding the lending program took place in the early years of its operation, funding has limited CWF from doing any significant, dedicated outreach since 2024. As closures continue to impact new areas and fish harvesters each year, there is a continued need to conduct outreach in fishing communities throughout the Atlantic provinces to ensure there is strong awareness of the program and how it can help harvesters impacted by closures by giving them the ability to continue fishing with whale-safe gear.

Targeted advertising, trade shows and dock demonstrations will assist in building increased awareness, promoting the use of the program and therefore sustainable fisheries. Funding support would assist with the costs of this outreach, including travel, advertising, and harvester workshops.

FishSource Profile: Queen crab, NW Atlantic, Canada S Gulf of St. Lawrence

Description

The Canadian Wildlife Federation (CWF) is conducting gear localization trials to determine the most effective methods for accurately identifying the location of on-demand fishing gear on the seafloor, an essential requirement for reducing gear conflicts and losses as whale-safe, on-demand fisheries expand into high-density fisheries such as lobster and snow crab. Current GPS surface marking methods are adequate for low-density fishing activity but may not provide the precision needed as adoption increases. CWF is conducting gear localization trials to compare GPS surface marking to other methods of gear localization, such as those using acoustic technologies to mark gear on the seafloor, to compare accuracies and determine which method might be required for different fisheries. Because these technologies are still evolving, ongoing equipment upgrades and vessel modifications are necessary.

Support for this incentive would fund gear upgrades required to continue gear localization trials. This will include outfitting vessels with the technology (e.g. thru-hull installations), and the purchase of SmartBuoys to allow comparison data to be integrated. This work is essential to finding a method suitable for Canada’s highest-density fisheries, such as snow crab and lobster, to encourage broader adoption and the development of sustainable fisheries.

FishSource Profile: Queen crab, NW Atlantic, Canada S Gulf of St. Lawrence