This project will support the marine mammal protection act (MMPA) and endangered species act (ESA) to reduce and significantly lower levels (approaching zero) of mortality and serious injury rate of…

This Cooperative Agreement award of $433,648 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will support the development and testing of ropeless lift-bag technology to reduce marine mammal entanglements in commercial and recreational fixed gear fishing operations. Working under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and Endangered Species Act, the award recipient Smelts Sea Mammal Education Learning Technology Society will partner with fishermen to conduct trials marking fishing gear and retrieving gear using hull-mounted transducers and populating ropeless gear positions on an app. This will allow fishermen to locate, view, and recover ropeless lift-bag gear and demonstrate to fisheries enforcement how ropeless gear can be regulated. Smelts will perform repeatable demonstration trials and collect data needed to accurately mark ropeless gear deployment and retrieval under the Unallied Science Program's goal of contributing optimal fishery and protected species management through biological, socioeconomic and physical science research.

This project will support the marine mammal protection act (MMPA) and endangered species act (ESA) to reduce and significantly lower levels (approaching zero) of mortality and serious injury rate of marine mammals occurring in commercial and recreational fixed gear fishing operations by removing persistent vertical lines with smelts ropeless lift-bag technology including the lobster, crab and gillnet raft . Project investigators will partner with fishermen to perform trials of marking gear and recovering gear using hull mounted transducers and populating ropeless gear position at surface and seafloor on earthranger APP. This will allow fishermen to find, view and recover smelts ropeless lift bag gear, and show fisheries enforcement how to view and regulate ropeless gear. Smelts will work on trials that demonstrate repeatable results and show that a suite of data will be needed to accurately mark ropeless gear in and out of the ocean. Smart buoys and asset trackers will provide resurfac