Tag Archives: Ropeless
P.E.I.’s snow crab season wrapping up as right whale protection begins
An early start to the season is paying off for many P.E.I. snow crab fishers, with good catches and better prices than last year. An added bonus: for the second straight year, most will have caught their quota before endangered North Atlantic right whales move into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, prompting protective measures to prevent entanglement in fishing gear. Alden Gaudet said fishers are much better prepared this year than they were two years ago in case of closures due to right whales. “This year, we’ve lobbied to be able to immediately remove our buoys from these traps and use this ropeless, on-demand [system, without having to wait 48 hours to reset back in these areas. So it will make things a lot easier,” he said. Photos, Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 07:42
Hope vs. rope: Can technology save the whales, and Maine’s lobster industry, too?
Along the coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, scientists, engineers, and fishermen are working feverishly to develop a new, high-tech way to harvest lobster – and the result could be the key to the survival of both the U.S. lobster fishery and the imperiled North Atlantic right whale. But farther north in Maine, the epicenter of the fishery, it’s unusually quiet. Only one Maine business is working on the technology, and only a handful of Maine lobstermen will test it. Many won’t even discuss it. The ropeless part is being worked out, but another critical component – an interoperable, open platform to track gear – is far from ready. The new equipment also is, at least for now, prohibitively expensive. One lobsterman said it would cost him nearly $500,000 upfront. >click to read< 16:20
NOAA Fisheries Issues On-Demand Gear Exempted Fishing Permit
August 23, 2022 – Yesterday, NOAA Fisheries issued an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) to the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (Center) to continue trials of on-demand gear in the American lobster fishery. The EFP will provide an exemption from Federal lobster gear marking requirements for approximately 30 federally permitted commercial lobster vessels, with the potential to increase to up to 100 vessels total during the one-year project period. The EFP will allow participating vessels to test alternatives to static vertical lines in trap/pot fisheries (also referred to as on-demand gear), including up to 30 vessels fishing in Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan Restricted Areas with no static vertical lines. >click to read< 14:18
P.E.I. fishermen feel unjustified blame in right whale deaths, says PEIFA
Island fishermen feel they’re being blamed in some cases of right whales becoming entangled in fishing gear and dying this year, according to the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association. Several of the eight dead right whales found this year have been entangled in fishing gear. “This year a number of the deaths that were necropsied already show to be due to vessel strikes rather than the entanglement,” >click to read< 19:45
