February 20, 2018 — WOODS HOLE, Mass. — Without prompt action to reduce entanglements in fishing lines, North Atlantic right whales could disappear from the planet over the next two decades, scientists say.
In response, scientists here on Cape Cod are proposing a novel way to save the species — one that many New England lobstermen fear could destroy their livelihoods.
At a recent meeting with a host of skeptical lobstermen, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution presented the concept of ropeless fishing, a nascent technology that eliminates the need for the long, taut ropes that extend from millions of traps at the bottom of the ocean to their buoys at the surface. These ropes have killed many of the docile mammals.
“I want to see a profitable, sustainable lobster industry that’s not abusive to the animals,” said Michael Moore, director of the Marine Mammal Center at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “But what’s happening now isn’t working. We’re painfully and inexorably squeezing the life out of these animals.”
Over the past year, at least 18 right whales have died — a grave blow to a species with only about 450 left in the world and just 100 breeding females. Scientists fear they’re not reproducing fast enough and could face extinction as soon as 2040.
The problem, Moore and his colleagues say, is that most fatalities appear to be the result of right whales becoming entangled in fishing lines. In a federal survey of right whale deaths between 2010 and 2014, scientists found that 82 percent died as a result of entanglements. The rest died from ship strikes.
Read the full story at the Boston Globe