Alaska Fish Factor

Bycatch gives Alaska’s otherwise stellar fisheries management its biggest black eye.

The term refers to unwanted sea creatures taken in trawls, pots, lines and nets when boats are going after other targeted catches. Bycatch is the bane of existence for fishermen, seafood companies and policy makers alike, yet few significant advances have been found to mitigate the problem.

A simple fix has recently shed light on a solution.

“Ten underwater LED lights can be configured to light up different parts of the fishing gear with six different colors, intensity and flash rates to attract, repel or guide fish through the gear while retaining the target catches,” said Dan Watson, CEO and co-founder of SafetyNet Technologies, based in the U.K, which provides its Pisces light system to fisheries around the globe.

“The different light characteristics affect different species in different ways,” he added. “For instance, green light is really effective for reducing turtle bycatch in gillnets. Blue lights flashing at a particular rate can deter haddock and drive them away. This programmability means that you can use it for a number of different species and in different circumstances as well.”

The Pisces lights are powered by a wireless charger, require no plugs or batteries, automatically turn on underwater only when needed, and do not weaken or weigh down nets.

Watson began working on the lights in 2009 when he was a student at Glasgow University and doing research with the Aberdeen Marine Laboratory.

“They had a paper that had been in their library for about 40 years from a researcher who had been shining flashlights into fish tanks and seeing that some species would react quite strongly, some would come toward them, some would move away, and others just weren’t bothered at all,” he said.

After working in partnership with scientists and fishermen, the first batch of Pisces lights was tested in 2015 in fisheries in Europe and the and usage has since spread to the U.S. and other regions.

A 2015-2018 study on small-scale fishing vessels in Peru, for example, showed that LED lights on gillnets reduced bycatch of sea turtles in gillnet fisheries by more than 70%, and by over 66% for dolphins and porpoises, while not reducing the take of target species.

The lights also reduced bycatch of seabirds in gillnets by about 85%.

The study, by the University of Exeter and the conservation organization ProDelphinus, concluded that “Sensory cues — in this case LED lights — are one way we might alert such species to the presence of fishing gear in the water.”

A 2020 study by Mark Lomeli of the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission in collaboration with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center showed that lights directed chinook salmon to escape panels in trawl nets in the Pacific hake fishery, the largest groundfish fishery on the West Coast. Eighty-six percent of escaped chinook used the well-lit, LED-framed openings, and the data suggest the lights can increase salmon escapes overall.

And since 2018, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission has required the use of lighting devices on the footropes of shrimp trawls. Sea trials showed that bycatch of eulachon was reduced by over 90% by weight, juvenile rockfish takes dropped by 78%, flatfish bycatch was reduced by nearly 70% and the loss of targeted shrimp was statistically non-significant at 0.7%.

“You don’t need the lights to cover the entire panel on a massive net, it might be that you put them along the footrope or the headline or even potentially in the wings,” Watson said. “We generally supply fishing vessels with around 10 lights and a couple of charging cases to keep them going.”

“In Europe we’re working with agencies to try and get the required scientific evidence for them to start to legislate the use of lights,” he said. “It’s still sort of in the early days. … It takes a while to get into that adoption phase and that’s where we’re working at the moment.”

Since May, the SafetyNet Tech team has been collaborating with the Alaska Ocean Cluster, a project of the Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association, to identify captains and vessel owners interested in bringing the light show to Alaska, particularly aboard Bering Sea trawlers.

“SNTech is a great example of the opportunities we’re seeing across the seafood and marine technology landscape,” said Garrett Evridge, Alaska Ocean Cluster managing director of research and administration.

More COVID funds

Alaska fishermen and other businesses can soon apply for a new $90 million pool of federal pandemic money that will be distributed by the state. Grant money for the program comes from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.

The Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development announced last week that applications will open sometime this fall and recipients will be chosen “based on demonstrated need.”

Eligible fishing businesses include commercial fishermen who held a limited entry permit or interim entry permit in 2019 and 2020.

Applicants must be based in Alaska, have revenue between $10,000 and $50 million in 2019, filed taxes in 2019 and 2020, and be able to show they lost at least 50% of their net income as a result of the pandemic. Nonprofits are not eligible to apply.

Applications will be split into three groups, based on the size of their businesses. Each group will be eligible for up to 80% of their documented income loss, up to a cap of $1 million. Applicants will be required to say how they intend to spend the money, which will be distributed as a grant that does not have to be repaid.

The funds must be spent on past, current, or future business costs and may not be retained or invested.

Find more information at the state Commerce Department website.

Fish board lineup

The state Board of Fisheries is planning on in-person meetings this fall after months of delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. By this past March, the board was scheduled to have finished up 275 proposals for Southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound and statewide shellfish fisheries.

The meeting cycle addresses management issues for commercial, sport, subsistence and personal-use fisheries in state waters for specific regions every three years.

A work session is set for Oct. 20-21 in Anchorage. The board will meet Jan. 4-15 in Ketchikan to address Southeast and Yakutat fish and shellfish issues.