One of the terms and conditions in the shallow-set fishery BiOp requires NMFS to conduct a workshop with fishermen, observers, relevant experts and NMFS\u2019 Protected Resources Division staff to \u201cdetermine whether there are more effective methods for removing more fishing gear from leatherbacks to increase their chance of survival after interacting with longline gear. … This workshop should be repeated as necessary and findings should be incorporated into the annual Protected Species Workshops given by NMFS [Sustainable Fisheries Division].\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opinion cites an estimate from Wespac\u2019s Asuka Ishizaki that leatherback deaths could have been reduced by about 20 percent from 2004-2018 by reducing trailing gear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIdentifying and incorporating such\nmeasures through the workshop may help\nto reduce the adverse effects of fishery\ninteractions with leatherback sea turtles,\u201d\nit stated.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enter Caleb McMahan, former federal\nfishery observer and current media and\nmarketing director of Hawaiian Fresh\nSeafood. For the past few years, he has\nbeen spearheading a local effort to develop\na device that can slide down the branch\nlines of longline gear, and then clip the\nlines as close as possible to incidentally\ncaught animals. Conceivably, it could\neven remove the hook as well, he said in\nan interview.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His current iteration, which is still being developed in cooperation with Makai Engineering, builds on a design he developed with a machinist from Mapunapuna. That design itself was based on a prototype developed with federal grant funding on the East Coast. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In testing his first device, a clunky stainless steel contraption that cost $3,000 to make, he found it was able to release hooked blue sharks with only a few inches of line remaining. With satellite tags provided by Melanie Hutchinson, a bycatch researcher with the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, he was able to see that the sharks survived more than 30 days after being released. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this year, McMahan received\ngrant funding that allowed him to work with\nMakai Engineering to improve the device.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe new generation of the concept\nblows the other one out of the water.\nWe\u2019re talking about a piece of equipment\nnow much more capable of doing the\njob,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have designs of a line-cutting device\ncapable of cutting through the hook, the\nwire, and the leader. This thing can crawl\ndown the line in case of an obstruction or\nsag. You can put a camera on this thing,\u201d\nhe continued. It looks a little like a football,\nwith the moving parts encased inside.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If McMahan wins enough grant funding to complete a successful prototype, he said vessels could conceivably start using the device within one year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said the device will definitely work\nbest with an animal hooked onto a single\nline and not entangled with any other\ngear. While it could apply to false killer\nwhales, which can be hooked by longline\nvessels targeting bigeye tuna, McMahan\nsaid mitigation for that species has focused\nmainly on ways to get the whales to free\nthemselves.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some people involved in mitigation\ndiscussions for that species \u201cdon\u2019t even\nwant to look at trailing gear,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For now, the device is being considered\nprimarily as a way to minimize trailing\ngear on sea turtles, especially those hooked\nby the Hawai\u2018i swordfish fishery. He said\nhe\u2019s also awaiting grant funding to work\nwith the same engineering company on\ndesigning satellite tags so that the device\ncan deploy them on leatherback turtles.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earthjustice attorney David Henkin\ntold Environment Hawai\u2018i<\/em>, \u201cIf such a device\ncould minimize harm, that would, of course,\nbe wonderful, but I\u2019m not getting my hopes\nup until it proves itself in action.\u201d\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the terms and conditions in the shallow-set fishery BiOp requires NMFS to conduct a workshop with fishermen, observers, relevant experts and NMFS’ Protected Resources Division staff to “determine whether there are more effective methods for removing more fishing … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[457,26,8],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-11664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-august-2019","category-endangered-species","category-fisheries","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}