May 3, 2023 — The largest deployment of on-demand, or “ropeless” fishing gear in southern New England recently concluded with up to 30 federally permitted lobster and Jonah crab vessels fishing waters closed to traditional trap and vertical-line setups. The collaboration between the National Marine Fisheries Service, its Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and southern New England pot and trap fishermen is an effort to test a potential long-term solution to prevent whale entanglements.
Participating fishermen were allowed 10 trawls each, using different designs of on-demand gear, activated by acoustic signals for retrieval, in federal waters of the South Island Restricted Area and the Massachusetts Restricted Area. Testing ran from Feb. 1 to April 30 under an Exempted Fishing Permit issued to the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center.
“It’s been nice because a couple of years ago fishermen would say ropeless would never work,” Henry Milliken, a supervisory research fishery biologist at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “Now they say it will be the technology that keeps them on the water.”
No participating fishermen responded to requests for comment and NMFS refused to release the names of participating fishermen. There have been allegations of harassment and threats levied at fishermen on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts who have participated in prior on-demand and ropeless tests.