The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC) is mulling whether to include new regulations for on-demand, or “ropeless,” gear on black sea bass pots as a means of preventing adverse impacts on whales.
The Atlantic black sea bass pot fishery uses pot traps that rest on the bottom of the ocean and have a vertical line with a buoy attached for retrieval – similar to other pot fisheries like lobster or crab. The fishery has been experimentally using various types of on-demand gear since 2021, which can include a pot that releases a vertical line only when it gets a signal or a pot that uses inflatables to rise to the surface for easy retrieval.
On 13 February, the SAFMC held a scoping meeting to work on whether to create an amendment adding on-demand pots as an allowable gear for the commercial harvest of black sea bass, which is currently only done under an exempted fishing permit.
On-demand gear is a hot topic in the wider fishing industry as whales – like the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale – are put at risk by vertical lines used in pot- and trap-based fisheries. The recent death of a right whale off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard – an island 7 miles off the coast of the U.S. state of Massachusetts – was caused by an entanglement that NOAA later linked to gear from the lobster-fishing industry in Maine.
The SAFMC’s jurisdiction covers waters along the East Coast of the U.S. – from the northern coast of North Carolina to southern Florida. That region includes the warm coastal waters of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida’s east coast, where North Atlantic right whales migrate each winter.
Currently, the black sea bass fishery is closed during the winter months that coincide with whale migrations, but fishermen using on-demand gear can currently attain exemptions to those closures to continue fishing.
Allowing on-demand gear to be used in the commercial fishery at-large will require additional rulemaking, according to the SAFMC. Regulations made through the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team – which is, in part, responsible for managing fisheries regulations with respect to the Marine Mammal Protectino Act – as well as rules made by the SAFMC would both need to be amended to allow on-demand gear.
The type of gear the council aims to allow is also an issue, according to a presentation by SAFMC Fishery Scientist Mike Schmidtke. If the council decides to stick with just on-demand gear that releases a vertical line, there will be fewer regulatory changes needed, but if the council approves multiple kinds of on-demand gear, there may need to be a wider scope of policy changes.
Fishers who have piloted the gear so far have reported it is easy to use and effective once they learn the system. Jimmy Hull, a commercial fisherman, said during a workshop in August 2023 concerning on-demand gear that rope management on his vessel has improved, that the only failures he’s seen so far were due to human error, and that across 3,000 deployments, there were only four missing pieces of gear.
Additionally, allowing on-demand fishing gear into the commercial fishery won’t ban the use of vertical lines. Currently, the SAFMC is considering on-demand gear as a means of allowing fishing during the winter months, while vertical lines will continue to be allowed during the normal fishing season.
Environmental groups like Oceana have applauded the SAFMC’s efforts to move toward ropeless gear, especially as right whales continue to face threats. So far in 2024, five different North Atlantic right whales have been reported either dead or critically injured, with a recent whale death on 13 February off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, being attributed to a ship strike.
“The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is showing that both whales and fisheries can coexist and thrive,” Oceana Marine Scientist Alexandra Aines said. “We’re one step closer to better protections for critically endangered North Atlantic right whales and a simultaneously thriving black sea bass fishery. Once adopted, the new regulations will have an immediate effect in protecting these whales and offer an avenue for continued success for the commercial fishing industry.”
Photo courtesy of Bryan Fluech/SAFMC
