https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/advance-article/doi/10.1093/icesjms/fsy194/5288134
Abstract
Whales are federally protected by the Marine Mammal Protection
Act; endangered species, such as the North Atlantic right whale,
receive additional protection under the Endangered Species Act.
However, their regulations have failed to satisfy conservation and
animal welfare concerns. From 1990 to 2011 the North Atlantic
right whale (Eubalaena glacialis, NARW) population grew at a mean
of 2.8% annually. However, population trends reversed since 2011;
the species is in decline, with only ∼100 reproductively active
females remaining. This failure is driven by vessel collisions and
increasingly fatal and serious entanglement in fixed fishing gear,
whose rope strength has increased substantially. Chronic
entanglement, drag, and associated morbidity have been linked to
poor fecundity. Genuine solutions involve designating areas to be
avoided and speed restrictions for ships and removing fishing trap
ropes from the water column. A trap fishing closure for NARW
habitat in the Cape Cod Bay (U.S.) area has been in place
seasonally since 2015. 2017 mortalities in Eastern Canada elicited
substantive management changes whereby the 2018 presence of NARW
in active trap fishing areas resulted in an effective closure. To
avoid these costly closures, the traditional trap fishery model of
rope end lines attached to surface marker buoys has to be modified
so that traps are marked virtually, and retrieved with gear that
does not remain in the water column except during trap retrieval.
Consumer demand for genuinely whale-safe products will augment and
encourage the necessary regulatory changes so that trap fisheries
conserve target and non target species.
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Michael Moore
Biology Department
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution