Round 2: Fishing Gear Mini-Grants Program (2003) – 5 Funded Projects

Project Title

Funding Received

Project Summary

Final Report

Zap Link

$20,000

Develop and test a device that serves as a releasable link on groundlines of lobster trawls. The link will part if a whale catches the groundline in its mouth, but will still allow normal operation of trawls.

Zap Link

Glow-in-the-Dark Rope of Controllable Stiffness

$16,000

Develop and test a "glowing" rope that may help whales to avoid it because they can see it.  In addition, design a stiff rope that cannot wrap around any part of a whale that handles well on a fishing vessel.

Glow-in-the-Dark Rope of Controllable Stiffness

Investigation of Alternative Groundlines

$10,000

Replace floating groundlines on lobster and black sea bass traps with sinking and neutrally buoyant lines to reduce whale entanglement risk in the Mid-Atlantic.

Final Report Not Yet Received.

Lobster Gear Profile Separation Testing

$16,000

Using a vessel, simulate an interaction between a whale and lobster groundline to examine where and if the groundline is parting, at what tension, and what portion of the line and gear remains and what portion separates.  Conduct twenty-four trials using groundline of various diameters and traps of differing sizes and strengths.

Lobster Gear Profile Separation Testing

Investigations into the Adaptation of Microchip Technology to the Identification of Fishing Lines

$19,000

Adapt microchip technology that is used for animal identification to fishing gear. Microchips that are embedded into fishing lines at predetermined intervals could provide them with permanent identification.

Investigations into the Adaptation of Microchip Technology to the Identification of Fishing Lines