Description: In 1997, the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan was implemented to reduce the risk of entanglement to large whales through a set of gear modification and other requirements that affect commercial fishing operations along the East Coast. Fisheries of particular concern are gillnet and trap/pot fisheries, as fixed gear has been identified as an entanglement risk to large whales, however it remains unclear specifically what factors (e.g. gear component, location, depth and method of gear-setting) increase entanglement risk. This grant opportunity seeks to support research and development of a gear-marking device to store such data. The information collected from marked gear involved in entanglement events would be used to help develop appropriate management measures to further reduce the risk of interaction between large whales and fixed gear fisheries.
Ideally, the technology being supported will:
(1) Store data to identify the fisherman, type of fishery, area fished, and date of deployment as well as other data;
(2) Be portable so that it could be used for more than one fishery or if the gear is sold;
(3) Be durable enough to withstand the environmental conditions of the commercial fishery;
(4) Require minimal time to deploy/attach and to maintain over the life of the gear and be safe for fishermen to use; and
(5) Have accurate and dependable data retrieval.
Cost associated with purchase and replacement is an important factor as well. The ideal grant proposal will involve the development of potential prototypes, as well as consider the field testing and practical performance of the device according to the above criteria.
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