Innovations in Ropeless Fishing Gear Location Marking

Innovative approaches to marking the location of ropeless fishing gear include using acoustic technology to enable gear to report its position to fishermen. This technology aims to address gear conflicts and improve the efficiency of fisheries by providing accurate location data. Acoustic modems play a crucial role in these solutions, offering benefits such as precise gear location tracking and the ability to recover gear that has been moved after deployment. While there are challenges such as initial costs, the potential advantages make these advancements promising for the future of sustainable fishing practices.

• Ropeless Fishing
• Acoustic Technology
• Gear Location Marking
• Fisheries Management
• Innovative Solutions

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1. Marking gear location Mark Baumgartner Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

2. Ropeless (buoyless) fishing Taking away the end line and buoy requires the functions of these components to be replaced: Function 1: Retrieval of the gear Lift bags (variable buoyancy) Bottom-stowed rope Function 2: Marking the location of the gear

3. Ropeless fishing and gear conflict NMFS Concept Paper on ropeless fishing (Nov 2010): Problems with gear conflicts are the main reason why buoy lineless fisheries are not being conducted on a broad-scale basis. Any unmarked fixed gear would be susceptible to being towed through by mobile gear fisheries (bottom trawl, scallop dredge, etc.), and set over by other fixed gear and vice versa. Therefore, in order to encourage buoy lineless fishery operations, gear conflicts would need to be addressed.

4. One approach: Have fishermen mark the location of the gear on a plotter or other system when they deploy, and then share those locations with other fishermen Pros: Relatively cheap, solutions exist today Cons: (1) Fishermen are not keen to share fishing locations, (2) most fishing boats not equipped with satellite communications, (3) can be manipulated, and (4) unhelpful for gear that has moved (e.g., by a storm)

5. Acoustic approach Acoustically mark the location of each trap (singles) or the ends of each trawl Enable the trap/trawl to report its position to fixed or mobile fishermen Enable the trap/trawl to report its owner s registration/permit information to enforcement Enable commercial chart plotters to display the positions of acoustically marked fixed gear Acoustic modems

6. Acoustic approach (continued) Pros: (1) Reports only to ships that are nearby, (2) reported locations are associated with gear that is actually on the sea floor, (3) allows recovery of gear moved after deployment (e.g., in a storm), and (4) can take advantage of acoustic communications already needed to trigger retrieval Cons: Potentially expensive (at least initially) Acoustic modems

7. Technology Acoustic modems allow data to be passed through water via acoustical waves the way cell phone modems allow data to be passed through air via radio waves Proven technology with several commercial manufacturers: Teledyne Benthos, Nortek, EvoLogics, Sonardyne, and AquaSeNT Propose to use modems on traps and on ships to acoustically mark location of on-bottom gear

8. Trap deployment GPS satellite constellation Trap modem w/GPS Lift bag Note: trap not to scale

9. Trap deployment GPS satellite constellation

10. Ship with surface modem

11. Data sent from ship to trap: Date/time Position of ship Ship identifier Data sent from trap to ship: Public data Last known position of trap (GPS/ranging) Private (encrypted) data Last surface date/time Fisherman s registration number Unique device identifier User-designated identification number Sensor data (e.g., trap occupancy)

12. Fisherman Data Warehouse Enforcement Regulators Data warehouse (cloud) operated by Private company Fisheries commission Government

13. Trap recovery

14. Gear that moves from its deployment location Locations in the data warehouse can be used to alert fishermen of 1. The fact that their gear has moved 2. The new location of their gear System can greatly reduce lost gear, time spent looking for lost gear, and costs Can significantly reduce ghost gear

15. Your trawl #29 has moved. It was detected by a ship 5 hours ago at 41 18.43 N, 70 36.22 W ???

16. Development Acoustic modems are commercially available, but development is required to o Incorporate retrieval trigger mechanism o Incorporate GPS and self-localization capability o Communication and data protocols to ensure interoperability (e.g., JANUS)

17. Development (continued) WHOI is working on this o Incorporated WHOI Micromodem-based trap modem in 2 retrieval systems (SMELTS lift bag, WHOI spooled rope) o Will incorporate GPS this winter o Developed methodology for self-localization o Plan to demonstrate these capabilities for fishermen and regulators o Provide open access to methods and software

18. Development (continued) Cost depends on design and demand Units 1 10 100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000 Cost per unit $18,000 $9,000 $4,500 $2,250 $1,125 $563 $281 WHOI trap modem Commercial acoustic modem Engineering rule of thumb: As production increases by a factor of ten, cost goes down by a factor of 2

19. Thank you! Your trawl #29 has moved. It was detected by a ship 5 hours ago at 41 18.43 N, 70 36.22 W Acknowledgements Funding: Island Foundation Lift bag: Richard Riels (SMELTS) Spooled rope: Tim Werner (NEAq) Useful discussions: Jim Partan, Keenan Ball (WHOI)