Conservation through Innovation
-
Fundraiser to Benefit Whales!
The British Divers Marine Life Rescue Large Whale Disentanglement Team Needs Your Help~ Donate Here: https://www.facebook.com/www.sustainableseas.blog/posts/642688776307812 One of the important aspects of cetacean rescue work is having the right tool for the job! 🐋 In October of 2019, the Scottish Entanglement Alliance sponsored a disentanglement and technology training for fishermen and members of: British Divers Marine Life…
-
Ropeless Fishing in Scotland
Scottish tests of ‘whale-friendly’ fishing creels January 16, 2020. Author: Iain MacInnes Editor: Kim Sawicki Fishing gear designed to protect whales from entanglement is being trialled off Scotland’s coast. Whales can become caught in rope that runs between shellfish creels on the seabed to a buoy on the surface. The new “ropeless creels” have this…
-
Scottish Creel Fishers respond: Key Takeaway Points from a Ropeless Fishing Survey
One of the most critical aspects to the objective collection and analysis of data requires that bias be eliminated wherever and whenever possible. This means testing the gear in locations where conditions, both sea and social, present no obstacles to fishers providing feedback on design and applicability to their practices. To ensure the continued success…
-
What consumers really want…
An Introduction to DEVELOPING, MAINTAINING, AND LEVERAGING SUSTAINABLY MINDED CONSUMERS to Care about Ropeless Fishing… At the 2019 Seafood Expo: North America, Globescan presented “What Consumers Really Want: The Future of Sustainable Seafood.” Associate Director, Abbie Curtis O’Reilly informed several hundred industry stakeholders on a through survey done of North American seafood consumers (n=10,477) which…
-
How will ropeless gear help end whale entanglements?
An interview with Fulbright Fellow Kim Sawicki published November 20, 2019 by Francine Kershaw Meet Kim Sawicki, an American scientist currently living and working in Scotland on a Fulbright scholarship. Her goal? To advance the development of ropeless technology and help bring about its regular use in pot and trap fisheries around the world. Kim’s vision is to end…
-
Answers to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team Ropeless Subgroup Feasibility Matrix
Answers to the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team Ropeless Subgroup Feasibility Matrix Author: Kim Sawicki Correspondence to: Kim.Sawicki@uconn.edu +44 7840 489378 Contributing authors and collaborators: James A.R. McFarlane, Michael Shegog, John Fiotakis, Rich Riels, Jacob Wolf, Maxwell Poole, Aaron Stevenson, Marco Flagg, Robert Morris, Michael Stocker, Hannah Myers, Edward Wyman, Cormac Hondros-MacCarthy, Ted Zhu,…
-
We have a chance to fix things.
“If I seem like a radical, it may be because I see things that others do not. I think if others had the opportunity to witness what I’ve seen in my lifetime…I would not seem like a radical at all. We have a chance to fix things.” -Her Deepness, Sylvia Earle. Mission Blue It has…
-
Ropeless Consortium Informal Industry Working Group Ropeless Gear Testing Matrix 2019
Below please find a gear testing matrix that is offered open source to anyone wishing to perform ropeless gear testing. It is the result of the collaborative efforts of all of the gear designers and manufacturers listed on this blog. Through their willingness to work together to solve the problem of entanglements, they are proving…
-
Confirmed North Atlantic Right Whale Entanglement Deaths as of 2019
Above data appears in map form as published by NOAA’s Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team. Statistical data available to date indicates that these numbers reflect possibly less than 6% of all North Atlantic Right Whales killed as a result (either direct or indirect) of entanglement in man-made gear. This is a staggering number considering…
-
Why disentanglement teams are a crutch and not an adequate defense against entanglements.
Humpback whale entangled in fishing gear. © 2019 Captain Steve’s Rafting Adventures “Disentanglement is a crutch that’s been leant on for too long, it should not be viewed as a long-term solution to the entanglement crisis” – large whale disentanglement team member, Massachusetts. Quote from Ellie MacLennan’s 2017 paper “Disentangling a Whale of a Problem”…