Why Dodge Pots?
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Lawmakers discuss the idea of lobster and crab fisheries with fewer vertical lines
For Kim Sawicki, the issue of props being fouled in crab and lobster pot lines has been personal for years. She grew up sailing in Connecticut, where her job was to spend endless hours sitting on the bow as the lookout. And, about 20 years ago, friends of hers aboard a 47-foot Pacemaker could’ve been killed after entangled lobster-pot lines pulled the boat’s props together.
“The lines basically split the boat in half and it sank, right in Long Island Sound, off of Stonington, Connecticut,” Sawicki says, adding that her friends did make it to safety. “It took five minutes. People don’t realize it can happen that fast.”
UGA, fishing industry expand market, protect whales
March 3, 2021
Coastal researchers test new fishing gear to keep endangered North Atlantic right whale safe
The University of Georgia Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant are working with commercial fishermen to test advanced gear that could expand their catch and protect endangered North Atlantic right whales, like the one found dead off the coast of South Carolina recently.
Ropeless fishing gear would allow boats easier access to black sea bass, which are caught using pots that are lowered to the ocean floor with vertical fishing lines connected to floats that sit on top of the water. Fishermen set those pots for a period of time, and black sea bass swim into them and can’t get out. The pots and lines are retrieved at the end of each trip.
The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries announced Thursday a one-year study to assess the challenges and opportunities ropeless fishing gear might present to the state s lobster fishery.
The gear is not actually without rope, but with the help of different devices it is designed to eliminate the vertical buoy lines on fixed traps and potentially reduce the risk of right whale entanglement.
The appeal for scientists and conservationists is that with ropeless gear, the water column remains open to allow the unobstructed passage of the endangered North Atlantic right whale. However, lobstermen who would need to change their gear if a ropeless system was adopted have expressed concern and doubt about the technology s reliability and cost.