Jonah Crab Gear Innovation Project

Jonah crab has long been considered as bycatch of the lobster industry. In recent years, market demand for Jonah crab has increased and so have landings. In 2013, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute worked with local industry stakeholders to develop a Fishery Improvement Project (FIP) to establish a fishery management plan for Jonah crab.

Now, both the Jonah crab and American lobster fisheries are facing another challenge: critically endangered North Atlantic right whales have changed their migration patterns due to warming ocean waters and climate change, and that has brought them into contact with static rope in fisheries that did not interact with right whales before.

The primary cause of mortality and serious injury to most of these whales is from vessel strikes and rope entanglements from static pot and trap fishing gear in areas that overlap with right whale habitat. People who fish for crab and lobster in this habitat are increasingly unable to use traditional gear, as fishing areas are closed to this type of gear to protect whales.

One solution is the use of on demand, or “ropeless” pot and trap gear, which can be deployed in areas where fisheries are likely to overlap with whales to remove the static rope from the water column while still allowing fishers to access their gear by summoning it with acoustic or other signaling mechanisms.

This Gear Innovation Project is a Basic FIP and will pilot and consistently trial such ropeless gears. Participants will provide feedback and data to the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and directly to gear manufacturers, with recommendations on how they can improve their product for use in the fishery.

Pilot projects give fishers the opportunity to test the gear and provide critical feedback to manufacturers, while allowing fishers to get more comfortable with ropeless fishing.