New ropeless fishing technology, which can help save whales, tested off Newfoundland

A test deployment of ropeless fishing gearlast month off the coast of Newfoundland brought to life a more thanfour-decades-old dream of biologist Michael Moore and in a way,the test brought those dreams home.

Moore, the director of the Marine Mammal Center at theU.S.-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,said hiscareer has been deeply influenced by the late Newfoundland marinebiologist Jon Lien. Lien was known for developing techniques to freewhales caught in fishing ropes, and he released hundreds of theanimals over the course of his career.

Moore said Lien first told him about the whale-saving potentialof ropeless fishing gear four decades ago during a road trip acrossNewfoundland.

"Forty-three years later, his hope and his prophecy is comingtrue," Moore said in a recent interview about Lien. "It's veryspecial."

Ropeless fishing technology is still in its infancy, but thereare high hopes among scientists and fishers that it will result infewer whales getting trapped in fishing ropes and help fishers.

Efforts to deploy the new fishing methods are focused on theendangered North Atlantic right whale, of which there are only an estimated 336 remaining in the world.

Moore authored a study in 2020 that suggested 85 per cent of rightwhale deaths between 2010 and 2015 were caused by entanglements withfishing gear. Scientists like Moore hope the widespread adoption ofropeless gear will curb those entanglements and allow the species torecover.

Last month, acoustic technology developed by Jasco AppliedSciences was outfitted on crab and lobster traps that were deployedoff the coast of Harbour Breton and just outside St.John's harbour. The test run was launched through apartnership between Jasco, the Washington-based non-profit SeaMammal Education Learning Technology Society, and the commercialfishing arm of the Miawpukek First Nation.

Fishers can release the traps into the water and find them againthrough an acoustic signal, Jasco engineering manager John Moloneysaid. The traps are equipped with inflatablebladders that fishers can trigger when it's time to bring them up tothe surface.

Traditional traps are attached to buoys by long ropes that floatvertically in the water, and passing whales can becomeensnared in the lines. Without the long fishing ropes, there arefewer dangers lurking in the water.

Whales also become ensnared in what's called "ghost gear" massive tangles of nets that have come loose and are left to driftendlessly through the water.

Ropeless traps will have a much higher recovery rate thantraditional gear, Moloney said. And if a trap is lost, it won't beattached to hazardous ropes, he added.

Jasco technology is also being tested in the United States,Moloney said. Some of those tests involve a group called theRopeless Consortium, of which Moore is a part.

Both Moloney and Moore said they agreed that the cost of ropelessgear is currently a barrier to its widespread use, but Moloney saidJasco's technology will make it more affordable. He also said ropeless traps will last for about 10 seasons, whereas traditionalgear is often used for only one.

There are also bureaucratic hurdles in front of the ropelesstechnology: the federal Fisheries Department has been supportive ofits development but still has to figure out how to regulate it,Moloney said.

Still, he thinks the technology is well on its way.

"I do believe that 10 years from now, when you start talkingabout fishing with ropes, people will just look at you like you'reweird," Moloney said. "It will replace rope fishing, for sure."

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