John,
We’ve just begun to understand the lives of awe-inspiring ocean dwellers like massive blue whales, singing humpbacks and ancient leatherback sea turtles. Sadly hundreds of thousands of these creatures suffer or die every year from entanglement in fishing gear.
According to NOAA Fisheries, 446 large whales got tangled in commercial fishing gear between 2017 and 2022 — and that’s likely just a fraction of the actual number of entanglements. Entanglements happen when animals get caught in vertical ropes that run from buoys at the water’s surface to fishing traps on the seafloor. Vertical lines can starve, suffocate, wound and even drown animals who aren’t lucky enough to escape.
But there’s a solution: pop-up fishing gear.
Also known as ropeless or on-demand gear, pop-up fishing gear limits the amount of time vertical lines stay in the water, making it safer for marine life to swim, eat and reproduce.
On a practical level, though, regulations and high costs have stopped fishing communities from quickly, widely adopting the new technology — and wildlife can’t wait. NOAA Fisheries needs to speed things up by championing this common-sense solution in its federal rules.
Tell the agency to support the widespread adoption of pop-up fishing gear, a tried-and-tested alternative to commercial fishing gear that will save the lives of countless marine animals.
