February 21, 2023 — North Carolina Sea Grant’s Sara Mirabilio is continuing collaborative research to keep sharks away from commercial fishing gear. A multi-campus team is partnering with the private sector to pilot test a device that deters the predators.
“Several sharks are overfished or are experiencing overfishing on the U.S. East Coast,” says Mirabilio, a fisheries extension specialist. “Populations of scalloped hammerhead, dusky, sandbar, and blacknose sharks all could benefit from an effective deterrent from commercial fishing gear.”
Most often, sharks are caught unintentionally — as “bycatch” — when fishers are targeting other fish, she explains.
Mirabilio and colleagues, including Richard Brill, an affiliated scholar at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, are further testing a state-of-the-art electronic device that could help conserve species of sharks whose populations fishery managers are trying to rebuild. Brill says that unlike other fish, sharks possess an electrosensory system that equips them to detect close-range movements of predators or prey.
“The objective of the project is to keep the sharks away from the fishing gear, not the fishing gear away from the sharks,” says Brill. “To an approaching shark, even a weak electrical impulse can be disorientating or physically uncomfortable.” The device produces a small electric field around a baited hook