New grants from NOAA Fisheries will fund collaborative efforts between marine mammal researchers and West Coast crab fishermen to head off a sharp increase in the number of large whales that have become entangled in lines attached to crab pots in recent years.
Funding from NOAA Fisheries’ Bycatch Reduction Engineering Program to H.T. Harvey and Associates, a California ecological consulting company, will first pay to study the current configuration of crab pots and lines to better understand how whales may become entangled.
A second grant to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC) will bring fishermen, marine mammal specialists and others together to explore new gear or practices that may help reduce entanglements. PSMFC will then work with willing fishermen to test the most promising approaches…