one proposed design for pop-up gear features a submerged buoy line that only extends to the surface when remotely triggered.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nfishers remain unconvinced that pop-up gear is viable, citing the difficulties in operating as a fleet around unseen gear, unfeasible costs, and high rates of failure during tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
without a surface buoy design marking its location, fishers are concerned with overlapping as each boat lays hundreds of crab traps in the same zone, which can lead to tangling, lower catches, and gear failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cthey think we lose gear now?\u201d said collins, who participates in a lost-gear retrieval program. \u201cyou gotta be able to see the buoys [on the surface of the water] so you don\u2019t tangle with everybody and their brother.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
at over $1,000 a pot, pop-up gear could be over three times more expensive than conventional crab fishing gear. if the buoy fails to pop-up, the gear becomes irretrievable; lost pop-up gear may pose a larger risk to whales and boat engines, as fishers unwittingly lay gear on top of the unseen ropes below, and ropes from multiple sets of gear tangle with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cit\u2019s a huge capital investment,\u201d said captain shane wehr, a commercial dungeness crab fisher with family roots in the san francisco fishing community. \u201cit would probably weed out half of the fishermen, and guys would sell out of the industry completely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
regulators and scientists see potential in pop-up gear. \u201ci love the idea of ropeless gear,\u201d said dr. elliott l. hazen, a research ecologist at noaa in monterey, california, who sees pop-up gear as a promising technology that requires further testing. \u201chow do you help fishermen avoid each others\u2019 gear? if you can solve that problem, along with the sheer cost of ropeless gear, i think it\u2019s an amazing solution. i really do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
although a $500,000 grant currently exists for pop-up gear testing, bartling says few fishers have signed up to participate in gear trials. fishers say they are wary of regulations that would force them to reinvest in the expensive pop-up gear if the trials are successful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cit\u2019s a fear from decades and decades of having their way of life stripped away,\u201d said captain brand little, a commercial fisherman. \u201cif something gets taken away, its never coming back\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
hoops, scoops and loopholes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n captain brand \u201choop net\u201d little, received his nickname for his advocacy of another, less experimental type of alternative crab fishing gear as a solution to whale entanglements. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
traditionally used in spiny lobster fishing, hoop nets are shaped like volcanoes, with a circular opening at the top of a wider, circular base. unlike crab pots, hoop nets have no other openings. because of their open top which allows for crabs to escape once they have finished eating the bait, hoop nets cannot be left out for longer than two hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
due to this incentive to check hoop nets every two hours, the window for entanglement is much smaller. as two hours is too brief to leave the hoops unattended, any entangled whale would be quickly found, allowing time for the whale to be reported and potentially helped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
hoop nets were first seized upon by the recreational crab fishery, which is also impacted by whale risk-assessment closures, but has separate regulations. shortly after the delayed season started in november 2021, captain james smith, a former commercial crab fisher turned recreational charter boat captain, noticed that the text of the recreational regulations allowed for hoop net use during the closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201ceverybody was trying to get their hands on hoops as fast as they could,\u201d said smith. despite initial doubts from his peers on the efficacy of hoop nets, smith was able to tweak his hoop net process to consistently make his catch limit of 10 crabs per net, per day. once the word got out, charter boat businesses were able to salvage their crab fishing season by using hoop nets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
on the commercial side, little, a participant in the dungeness crab fishing gear working group, then noticed that recreational fishers began fishing for crab with hoop nets, despite the whale-risk-related closures. \u201cand we\u2019re all just sitting here waiting,\u201d said little. \u201cwhy can\u2019t i try these?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
but while they recognize the success of hoop nets for the recreational fisheries, some commercial fishers say hoop nets are a non-option for commercial fleets. \u201cthe guys that run my boats say, \u2018f*ck hoops. f*ck \u2018em from here and back,\u201d said wehr. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
compared to crab pots, hoop nets catch less crab and require more work. due to the two hour window for operating each hoop net, fishers are concerned of the potential of retrieving gear during storms, which can form quickly on the water. although the costs and set-up of hoop nets and crab pots are similar, many fishers feel reinvesting in new gear is too costly in both price and labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201call i can do is go out, use my boat, and try to come up with my ideas,\u201d said melz, who participated in pop-up gear trials, and decided to test hoop nets against crab pots for himself. he tested five variations of gear; three versions of a hoop net, and two versions of a crab pot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
the winner? a crab pot without a top, like a hoop net, but with the other design features of crab pots that add efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201ci lovingly call them scoops,\u201d said melz, nicknaming the modified crab pot. with an open top, his scoops require the same short use-times that make hoop nets safer for whales. but unlike hoop nets, scoops are modified crab pots and would require fishers to simply modify their existing inventory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n <\/p>\nall illustrations are based on photographs provided by the fishers interviewed for this story.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\nthe process for securing hoop net or scoop use commercially would require little and melz to go through the lengthy process of applying for an experimental fishing permit, which would give a limited number of fishers an opportunity to fish with experimental gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
little said industry competition, alongside the fear of traditional crab pots being banned if hoop nets are successful enough, could put a \u201chuge target\u201d on his back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cthere\u2019s $10 bills on the bottom of the ocean. there\u2019s millions of them and it\u2019s a race to pick them up the fastest,\u201d said little. \u201cand now you\u2019re sending 50 guys out there to get a head start? it’s not going to be popular.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
some fishers say it\u2019s time to revisit a reduced-gear solution they initially rejected and test the efficacy of the other numerous whale-safe improvements they\u2019ve made to their conventional gear by setting only a portion of their gear out in the water. but due to the initial pushback, regulators are no longer considering this option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
moving forward, together<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
crab fishing season was slated to open this past weekend. but with over 100 whales detected off the coast, commercial fishermen have been benched for a fourth year in a row; only recreational fishermen using hoop nets were permitted to begin their season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cwe\u2019re stewards of the resource,\u201d said captain richard powers, president of the golden gate fishermen\u2019s association, which represents northern california charter boat fleets. \u201cwe\u2019re doing everything in our power to be sustainable. we want this to remain exactly what it\u2019s been: part of our heritage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
even though a solution won\u2019t come in time for this year\u2019s season, the commercial fleet, charter boat captains, regulators, and scientists say they are committed to collaboration and share the same goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cwe\u2019re working to solve this, not just because it\u2019s the right thing to do, but because we want a viable fishery,\u201d said commissioner eric sklar of the california department of fish and game commission. he said that the stakes are clear: if whale entanglements continue to remain unsolved, it may mean the end of the dungeness crab fisheries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cthere is not one fisherman who wants [entanglements] to happen,\u201d said captain dick ogg, a commercial fisher who assisted during noaa sponsored disentanglement first responder courses, and participated during the aerial surveys of whale populations during entanglement risk assessments. \u201cthis is where we make our living. why would we do something detrimental to the environment?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
after the working groups and regulations fulfill the conditions of the settlement, the california department of fish and wildlife says the fishery could file for an incidental take permit, which grants an industry with a permitted amount of yearly \u201ctake\u201d. take is defined as an unintentional, but expected, disruption or harm to a species of animal protected by the endangered species act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
while incidental take permits have been called a \u201cnecessary evil,\u201d many are in agreement that this would represent a last-ditch solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cfishermen are the ones who are gonna want to protect [whales],\u201d said melz, who took the level 1 disentanglement responder training. \u201cbecause if they fail, we\u2019ll fail.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
a deep dive into how the san francisco crab fishers are innovating their industry to save whales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10213,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4905,4919,4935,4896,4923,5034,4914],"tags":[188,4811,1248,181,639],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-10999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adaptation","category-agriculture","category-conservation","category-food","category-oceans","category-storyfest-2023","category-sustainability","tag-california","tag-crabs","tag-fishing","tag-innovation","tag-whales"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
reinventing a sustainable crab fishery - planet forward<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n