Funding Opportunities

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. Reports of entangled whales come from throughout the West Coast, with the highest concentration off central California, where trap/pot and gillnet fisheries, are active. Most entanglements in this region occur, 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 that has the potential to reduce the risk of whale entanglement in fixed-gear fisheries by allowing fishermen to retrieve traps without relying on vertical buoy lines. Data and insights generated through this work 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

Description

Since it’s inception, Canadian Wildlife Federation’s (CWF) CanFISH Gear Lending Program has trained more than 30 harvesters in the use of on-demand gear technologies in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with ten using the gear during endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW) closures to land almost 400,000lbs of snow crab. As whale migrations and distributions continue to shift, there is now interest from lobster harvesters who fish under more extreme conditions (e.g. Bay of Fundy) in learning how to use the gear and being prepared for closures in their region. CWF’s detailed gear trials have demonstrated that lift-bag systems perform optimally under challenging conditions such as extreme tides and significant depths, and therefore there is the need to increase inventory of these systems to accommodate harvesters in these areas. At present, CWF has capability to assist 5 harvesters at any given time with lift-bag systems to fish sustainably in NARW closures. The goal is to double this number in the near-term, and double that number again within the next 3 years.

CWF is seeking support for costs of increasing the on-demand gear inventory of CanFISH to allow greater assistance to harvesters fishing in challenging environments where whales are at risk of entanglement. Support would also provide the ability for existing gear in their inventory to be upgraded as needed to handle these challenging conditions. Finally, CWF will conduct workshops for harvesters in these regions to demonstrate the gear, provide training as requested, and conduct general outreach to ensure harvesters are aware of the CanFISH resource.

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

Description

In 2025, four whale entanglements have been reported in Oregon Dungeness Crab gear, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) in a Fleet Advisory published on December 5, 2025. These entanglements have been confirmed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), and at least two appear to involve derelict gear—equipment that was likely lost prior to the entanglement and remained in the water after the close of the season. ODFW and fishermen are actively exploring solutions that reduce entanglement risk without requiring major changes to fishing practices.

Gear tracking technologies have demonstrated strong potential to prevent or significantly reduce gear loss by allowing fishermen to continuously monitor the location and movement of deployed gear. Blue Ocean Gear’s Smart Buoys are equipped with GPS and multiple sensors, providing real-time data accessible through existing onboard GPS chart plotters, mobile devices, or web browsers. This visibility enables precise retrieval of gear and ensures that all equipment is recovered at season’s end. Smart Buoys also issue targeted alerts when gear appears to have been dragged or broken free, identifying when and where retrieval is possible. Comprehensive tracking and recovery records at the end of each season help eliminate the presence of unattended vertical lines that can pose entanglement hazards to migrating whales.

Smart Buoys have been successfully deployed in several crab fisheries over the past five years. Building on that success, the University of Oregon in partnership with Blue Ocean Gear, is seeking funding to equip two commercial crab vessels with 10 Smart Buoys each for the 2025–2026 Dungeness Crab season. The project aims to assess the technology’s effectiveness in detecting and preventing derelict gear and potential whale entanglements in Oregon waters.

FishSource Profile: Dungeness crab, Oregon

Description

In the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the third largest snow crab fishery in the world faces a growing challenge: the co-occurrence of North Atlantic right whales (NARW) in dense fishing areas has increased the risk of whale entanglements, threatening both an endangered species and the livelihood of multi-generational fishing families. Harvesters in the region, long recognized for leading innovations in sustainable fisheries, are working with Blue Ocean Gear to test and refine Smart Buoys that could significantly reduce these risks.

Blue Ocean Gear’s Smart Buoys are equipped with GPS, accelerometer, and depth sensors designed in consultation with marine mammal scientists to detect entanglement events in real time. Combining these sensor data points through a cloud-based algorithm, Smart Buoys can identify anomalous gear movements that indicate a potential whale interaction or gear tampering, then automatically transmit alerts and location information to harvesters. This project will fund development and testing of automated entanglement and poaching detection algorithms, deploy additional Smart Buoys to active snow crab vessels, and simulate real-world entanglement events on the water. The goal is to integrate science-based detection into daily fishing operations, reduce gear loss, and enhance the protection of the critically endangered NARW—demonstrating how technology and fisheries can work together to safeguard ocean ecosystems while sustaining coastal communities.

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

Description

In Alaskan waters, the loss of crab pots can effect the marine ecosystem and the communities who rely on these fisheries. Studies show 31,000 pots per year are lost in the Bering Sea. These pots last up to 15 years in the environment.

Anecdotal reports from the Bering Sea Crabbers indicate that pot gear loss rates in Alaskan waters are in part due to gear conflict, which occurs when trawler vessel gear inadvertently interacts with crab pots fisheries. This causes potential damage to both the pots and the trawler vessel, often resulting in the parting of lines between the pots and surface buoys, meaning the pots are lost to the ocean floor where they continue to ghost fish.

Crab fishers in the Bering Sea have been eager to resolve this problem, but have not found a solution.  A means of resolving this issue is to utilize Smart Buoys to mark pot gear both on the owner’s chart plotter, but also on any trawl vessel within a certain range of that gear. This project will fund 120 Smart Buoy to crab harvesters in the snow crab and baridai crab fisheries in the Bering Sea to mark their pots. Blue Ocean Gear will be responsible for setting each crab harvester up with buoys and training. Blue Ocean Gear will work with the Bering Sea Crabbers to communicate with the trawl vessels.   Not only can this effort reduce the cost to harvesters who lose many pots each season to gear conflict, but it can also help protect the ocean ecosystem with high levels of biodiversity from the preventable causes of ghost fishing. In addition, it allows for seamless cooperation between fisheries, enabling them to operate in the same regions in a synchronous manner.