June 21, 2016 — An unusual coalition of lobster fishers, marine scientists, and rope manufacturers is banding together to save the whales—and catch more lobsters.

The idea is to come up with buoy lines to mark submerged lobster traps that will break loose when a whale becomes entangled in them, which can seriously injure or even kill the animals.

The effort to find the right balance was launched by the 109-member South Shore Lobstermen’s Association about two years ago after the National Marine Fisheries Service closed a 3,000-square-mile area off the coast of Massachusetts to fishers from February to April, when whales frequent those waters.

Many of the animals are North Atlantic right whales, the world’s most endangered great whale species. According to the Fisheries Service, 83 percent of these whales bear signs of entanglement in fishing gear, which killed or seriously injured an average of 3.4 right whales per year from 2009 through 2013.

Read the full story at Take Part