Tag Archives: Kim Sawicki
Tension grows among Bay Area crab fishermen to find whale-safe alternative crabbing methods
State regulators say the prevalence of marine life including humpback whales is too high for crab fishing to begin. Now there’s a growing tension among crab fishermen about alternative methods of whale-safe fishing to offset the losses of increasingly shortened seasons. Dick Ogg is a crab fisherman who also spends countless hours driving up and down the coast, advocating for others in the business without getting paid. Fishing is in the 72-year-old’s veins. Between calls with regulators and industry decision makers, Ogg prepares his own crab pots, employing just two deckhands who work in the side-yard of his home to save costs. But the Bodega Bay resident is concerned about a years-long push to promote high-tech “pop-up” fishing gear as the solution for whale-safe harvesting in the spring after the season ends. Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 09:26
Dungeness crab fisherman expand testing of pop-up traps amid CA’s continuous early season closures
For Brand Little and the crew of the Pale Horse, fishing for Dungeness crab is an increasingly tight business. Like the rest of the fleet, he’s watched the crabbing season shrink, with early closures meant to protect migrating whales from becoming entangled in trap lines. But this season, he’s still pushing his traps into the sea, weeks after last month’s official closing. It’s part of an experimental program that’s now expanded to more than two dozen boats. All using special pop-up trap systems, designed to avoid entanglements. “It’s a lot more work. Takes maybe three to four times as long as traditional gear. It’s not easy, but what we’ve been going through isn’t easy either. I mean, we’ve had 80% of our opportunity taken away,” Little said. Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:09
Black Sea Bass fishing return
Locally caught black sea bass may be back on the menu in the Golden Isles from November through April during calving season for North Atlantic right whales. The Georgia Conservancy has spent the past two years in a research project funded by UGA Marine Extension Service and Georgia Sea Grant to study the innovation of on-demand traps in an effort to eliminate the threat of fishing gear entanglement of the whales. Black sea bass fishing off the Georgia coast has been banned during calving season for more than a decade to help protect the whales. >click to read< 15:24
Future of right whale safe fishing gear could be in Southern waters
Getting heavy ropes out of the water column in Atlantic Coast saltwater fisheries is key to averting the extinction in our lifetimes of the North Atlantic right whale. Northeastern and Canadian lobstering and crabbing operations are deeply invested in heavy traps and the ropes used to access them, so most of the discussions about ropeless gear technology have a decidedly New England accent attached. However, red snapper hasn’t completely chased out pot fishing for black sea bass in South Atlantic waters, so fishers in this part of the world — albeit using lighter lines — are also in the conversation. >click to read< 19:25
Ropeless fishing gear: Georgia researchers work with commercial fishermen to test equipment
NOAA has identified two areas critical for right whales: off the coast of New England, where the whales forage for food in warmer months; and off the southeast coast from North Carolina to Florida, where the whales reproduce between November and April. Fluech is collaborating with Kim Sawicki, project lead and doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts,, In summer 2020, the research team secured a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service to test eight different ropeless gear systems with black sea bass pots off the coast of Georgia. It was the first time the ropeless gear had been tested in the South Atlantic. >click to read< 08:37
