...
A combination of new technologies makes selectivity and habitat conservation possible, but conversion to these new methods will be costly and difficult. To ease the transition to more expensive equipment, we propose that subsidies be redirected to support sustainable fishing. Tax deductions should also be used to encourage environmentally-friendly methods. The technologies themselves include digital imaging for catch specificity, line tension sensors to indicate net content, and electronic ticklers with depth sensors for trawl nets. These and other steps will allow fishermen, even in large-scale industrial fishing operations, to catch fish of proper size and species without damaging the ocean environment. A shift of the magnitude necessary to restore global fisheries will take time and commitment from across the world. Proper regulations from supportive governments can encourage the shift to sustainable technologies and unify the fishing community worldwide.
| Wiki Markup |
|---|
*Improvement in Fishing Technology (Short |
...
-Term) \[CHILD PAGE 1\]* |
General Goals
General goals of the plan include decreasing the harmful effects of fishing technology on the environment and increasing size and species selectivity of fishing gear in order to drastically reduce bycatch. Technological improvements are really only short-term solutions to global fishery problems. Long-term solutions will come from intelligent regulations and worldwide cooperation to use our resources wisely.
Technology Suggestions
We propose a two-step plan to transition to more environmentally friendly fishing technology.
Step 1:
Step 1 would include the use of methods that are more environmentally friendly, such as hand lining or trapping rather than bottom trawling, since trawls stir up sediment (turbidity is harmful to many fish species as well as bivalves), destroy fish habitat, and destroy plants and animals that live along the bottom, whereas hand lining and other more environmentally friendly methods do not contact the bottom and thus do not harm the nonliving environment and are very selective with little bycatch.
Hook and line, however, still has a small problem with bycatch. The hooks are baited but sometimes undesired fish other than the desired catch will eat the bait. Fishermen sometimes kill the these fish and throw them back in so they will not continue to eat their the bait. As an alternative, we suggest keeping onboard the boat an aerated tank that the bycatch fish can be put into. At the end of the day when the When the fishermen are done with their catchingfor the day, they can release the fish safely back into the ocean.
Also, rather than trawling or fishing for a set number of hours and pulling up the nets to see what and how much has been caught, putting sensors on nets that measure tension or width of the net or other factors can give fishermen an estimation estimate of the amount of fish in the nets before they pull the nets up. This way, the quota allowance allowances will not be exceeded resulting in all of the so fish caught over the quota pound limit being quota will not need to be thrown back dead into the ocean dead.
Putting escape vents in commercial nets would allow the escape of large sea mammals that become trapped inside. Step 1 would also require that nets are be manufactured with a biodegradable release mechanism, which is often as simple as a long slit in the nylon webbing which that is then sealed with cotton thread that degrades away. Traps would also have this such a time-release mechanism that , which would open and allow the fish inside to escape in if the event that the trap is blown away by a storm or otherwise not picked up by the fishermen or blown away by a storm. This provision eliminates fishermen. Such a measure would eliminate the self-perpetuating cycle of self-baiting "ghost traps."
Requiring A requirement that nets be manufactured with square mesh sections instead of all diamond mesh would make net size regulations more effective because square mesh does not close when towed and , thus allowing unwanted small fish can get through the mesh. Examples of these bycatch reduction devices include nets with radial escape sections or square mesh windows that allow fish to escape shrimp trawlsto pass through it and escape.
Step 2:
Step 2 would include adding sensors along the bottom bottoms of trawling nets that to keep the net them a certain fixed height above the ground to prevent damaging damage to the sea floor.
Using electrified ticklers to scare fish into the nets rather than the current chains which scrape the sea floor to scare fish into the nets, would mitigate currently used sea floor-scraping chains would reduce the environmental impact of trawling.
Implementing Use of sonar and other tracking devices to determine the size (and from that thus age if possible) and species and species of fish present in an area before nets are put into the water would limit the amount of bycatch of unwanted species or fish that are too small.
Implementing devices to Technologies that sort fish before catching based on instinctual defensive responses or other means such as electrofishing traits could also help reduce bycatch. An example of such a technology is electrofishing, which uses certain frequencies which attract and even paralyze if desired fish of a certain size and repel others away in order to lower bycatchbut repel unwanted fish.
Since step 2 is much more technologically advanced and likely to be more expensive, these measures would be implemented later when after more research has been done and these technologies can be more cheaply and this wide spread manufactured.
Future Steps:
A future idea would be to implement install GPS tags in nets and other fishing gear, which . The tags would emit a unique signal that can signals which could be tracked by an automated serverautomatically. Ships would also have a unique GPS tag tags that can could be matched together with their equipment; boats that don't pass inspection (i.e. use the right equipment in the right areas such as no trawling areas) would be red flagged by the automated system, which then eliminates the need for human operators and makes the enforcement aspect more efficient. This can also track ships that fish in no-take closed areas. In order to track the number of hours a ship's equipment is in the water, a speed coach propeller, or other mobile equipment which spin as water passes, could be put on nets and track the speed and time for which the equipment is pulled. Hours in the water could also be tracked by a resistance meter that can sense when it is in water because the resistance of the water is much less than of air so as the meter dries, resulting in a drop in resistance reading.
...