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Gear holds promise for whale protection
By CLARKE CANFIELD,
Associated Press writer
PORTLAND, Maine
A small piece of fishing gear might hold big promise in efforts to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale.
A prototype of a new "breakaway float" was unveiled yesterday that is intended to allow right whales to break free easily when they get entangled in nets. At the same time, the device could give fishermen an easy and inexpensive way to comply with regulations to protect right whales.
Scott Kraus, director of research at the New England Aquarium in Boston, called the float a breakthrough and said it conceivably could be used with lobster traps and other types of fishing gear in the future.
"The goal is to eliminate the extinction of both the fishing industry and the right whales," Kraus said during a news conference to show off the device.
There are fewer than 350 North Atlantic right whales, making them the world's rarest large whale. Nearly wiped out by hunting a century ago, the whales' biggest human threats are ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements.
The right whale is protected by the Endangered Species Act, and regulators have passed a number of laws to protect them by restricting when and where fishing is allowed, and which types of gear fishermen can use.
But some people fear that if more isn't done, entire fisheries could be closed to protect the whales.
Eric Dedoes, a fishing gear manufacturer from Lincoln County town of Somerville, designed the breakaway float, which is the size and shape of a small foam rubber football.
Dedoes' design won the Eubalaena Award, which is given by the Canadian Whale Institute and the New England Aquarium for innovative ideas in the conservation of right whales. The award has a $10,000 prize.
There's nothing high-tech or even complex about Dedoes' contraption -- it is merely a small piece of plastic that attaches to gill net ropes. Gill netting is a type of fishing where long panels of mesh float near the ocean bottom and snag fish by their gills, allowing fishermen to later retrieve them.
Gill nets, however, are also blamed for snagging unsuspecting right whales as they swim underwater with their mouths hung open in search of food. The float is designed so that the line will break away when the whale exerts enough pressure on it, thus freeing the whale from danger.
The federal government already requires fishermen to have a "weak link" on their lines to break away under pressure. Most fishermen install those links by splicing a thinner, weak rope into their existing fishing lines -- a time-consuming process.
The new float could provide a simple and inexpensive option to fishermen. Kraus said it also shows that the goals of conservationists and fishermen don't always have to collide.
"It suggests conflicts between wildlife in the ocean and fishing activities can be resolved," he said.
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