California Could Help Save Whales Around the World From Deadly Entanglements

Califórnia, entanglement, fishing gear, fishing net, ghost line, ghost net, Posts, trap signaling buoys, Whales

Guest author

Stephanie Prufer

Oceans Campaigner Center for Biological Diversity.

Whales, sea turtles and other marine life regularly get entangled in trap fishing gear used to catch lobsters and crabs, resulting in injuries or death. California saw steep annual increases in whale entanglements starting in 2014, which led to restrictions on its commercial Dungeness crab fishery, including shortened seasons to avoid whale migrations.

Now California is poised to take the next step, with legislation to require its trap fisheries to convert to new ropeless or pop-up gear by the end of 2025. The move could make California an international leader in replacing a haphazard, centuries-old fishing practice with innovative new technologies, incubating a new industry with global demand.

Commercial trap fisheries such as California’s crabbers or New England’s lobster fishery litter the ocean with thousands of thick, vertical ropes connecting heavy traps on the bottom to surface buoys. They remain in place for days or weeks at a time, creating a minefield that whales and sea turtles have to navigate.

When a large whale catches one of these ropes in its mouth, fins or tail, those ropes can cinch tightly and be very difficult to remove. Entangled whales can become exhausted and drown as they haul the heavy traps; sometimes they can have their flukes torn off by an ever-tightening noose.

A single death puts pressure on these already endangered species: One population of endangered humpback whales that feeds off California’s coast contains fewer than 800 individuals.

Luckily, there’s a solution to this problem, and it could save both the whales and the trap fishers, who would no longer be kept off the water by the presence of endangered whales. Ropeless gear, also known as “pop-up” or “buoyless” gear, doesn’t leave a static line in the water. When fishers come to retrieve their traps, the traps rise to the surface using either a lift bag or stowed rope and buoy, released by remote control.

These new traps aren’t mere prototypes by start-up companies: They’re already being used commercially in a fishery in Australia and being tested in Canada and on the East Coast of the United States, where trap fisheries have been entangling critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. They’re also being tested in California.

Perfecting the new ropeless gear and setting a hard deadline for its adoption is the goal of the California Whale Entanglement Prevention Act, also known as Assembly Bill 534. But California’s bold move could benefit fisheries around the world that are seeing a rising number of entanglements.

Changing ocean conditions and new whale migration and feeding patterns due to climate change are among the factors that may have contributed to California’s steep increase in entanglements. After an annual average of fewer than 10, reported whale entanglements rose to 30 in 2014, 62 in 2015, and 71 in 2016.

In Brazil southern right whales and humpback whales are also subject to the threat of entanglement. Last year a southern right whale and her offspring were found off the state of Santa Catarina with fishing gear wrapped around their heads.

It’s clear that the problem of whale and sea turtle entanglements isn’t going to resolve itself. More whales can mean more deadly entanglements if the fishing community sticks with its 19th century techniques instead of looking for 21st century technologies to reduce the threat.

California now has the chance to incubate and showcase a new technology that can be used in fisheries around the world that have watched deadly entanglements become a growing problem. This will also give governments the opportunity to follow California’s example and adopt the technology.