Conservation through Innovation
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Fishing with a Highliner
Across every industry, the demand for visionary leaders is evident. These individuals need to possess the capacity to continuously make lasting contributions to their field, while also facilitating the growth and empowerment of the next generation. National Fisherman Highliners represent the very essence of this type of leadership for the U.S. commercial fishing community, but…
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Sustainable Seas Technology Update: A Journey from 2022 to 2023
The past two years have been transformative but incredibly busy for Sustainable Seas Technology. Here’s a look back at our key milestones and the progress we’ve made in advancing ropeless fishing gear. 1. Advancements in Ropeless Fishing Gear Ropeless fishing gear has been at the forefront of our efforts. Traditional fishing methods, particularly those involving…
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Gearmarking, a.k.a how to not lose 18 million dollars of innovative gear
The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have announced an initiative funded by nearly $18.3 million in grants. This initiative, part of the New England Gear Innovation Fund (NEGIF), is focused on developing innovative fishing gear to reduce the risk of gear entanglement for North Atlantic right…
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Sustainable Seas Technology Update: A Journey from 2022 to 2023
The past two years have been transformative but incredibly busy for Sustainable Seas Technology. Here’s a look back at our key milestones and the progress we’ve made in advancing ropeless fishing gear. 1. Advancements in Ropeless Fishing Gear Ropeless fishing gear has been at the forefront of our efforts. Traditional fishing methods, particularly those involving…
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Ropeless fishing gear opens 15,000 square nautical miles of previously closed fishing grounds for South Atlantic black sea bass fishermen
Since 2018, our team has been thrilled to work collaboratively with fishermen previously unable to fish during whale closures. This February, NOAA granted them a permit to fish with these new gears in the area when North Atlantic right whales are migrating north with their new offspring! Ropeless fishing gear opens 15,000 square nautical miles…
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What I am Thankful for and What We Need to Do.
There are so many things I am grateful for this Thanksgiving. First and foremost, my family, friends, and dogs. They have supported me unconditionally for the last three years while I travel around two continents, meeting and working with inshore fishing communities. I wrote a blog post back in 2018 that I am acutely aware…
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The Need for Harmony
Ropeless Gear Testing Protocols Mark Baumgartner’s presentation at the 2019 Ropeless Consortium meeting in Portland, ME inspired me to focus my fieldwork efforts on three key points he made regarding ropeless gear testing. The road to hell is paved with good intentions “Ropeless gear needs to be safe for fishermen to use and safe for…
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This is real life.
October 28th, 2020. I arrived home Wednesday morning at 530am after another sixty straight days of ropeless research. Another 4,000 miles on the car, and tracing the nearly exact migration path of a North Atlantic right whale. And while we worked with some of the most experienced and creative pot fishers on the East Coast,…
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Fishing Entanglement Free
A film by Caillin Piggott Patterson. Starring, Josh and Maia. Here is an amazing video made for us by the Ullapool Sea Savers Ropeless Fishing Ambassador, Caillin, about fishing “entanglement free!” Fisherwoman Barbie is part of a fantastic set of to-scale models that accompany us on our global outreach missions. These functional models of both…
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Ropeless IS Real- the report
There are more than one million vertical lines off the North American coast of the Atlantic Ocean used by the lobster and crab fishing industry (Hayes et al., 2018). Pot/trap fishing gear, specifically the vertical lines attached to traps, poses an ongoing danger to both mariners and marine mammals, such as right whales. In fact,…