Bioprotectors at the University of Exeter have found that fluorescent fishing nets are a cost-effective way to reduce the unnecessary death of sea turtles.
Dr. Jeffrey Mangel, a researcher at Darwin Foundation of Peru, and Brendan Godley, a professor at the Ecology Conservation Center at Penn Campus of the University of Exeter, were among the research team. They found that installing a green battery-powered LED lamp on a gill net for a small fishery can make The mortality of Green Turtles decreased by 64%.
The team implemented this innovative research in Secura Bay in northern Peru. This is the first time lighting technology has been tested in the fishing industry. An LED lamp of 1.40 euros ($2), research shows that the cost of saving a turtle is 24 euros ($34). If the method is widely implemented, it will reduce a large expenditure.
The coastal waters of Peru are foraging grounds for many species of sea turtles, including the green lizards, turtles, red sea turtles and leatherback turtles. Peru’s gillnet fishing team is the country’s largest small-scale fishing fleet. It is conservatively estimated that 100,000 km of fishing nets are covered each year and thousands of sea turtles die by accidental capture.
The researchers used 114 pairs of nets, each about 500 meters long. In each pair of nets, a fishing net is installed with a LED light on the floating line every 10 meters. Another fishing net is a control group and LED lights are not installed. The control group captured 125 green turtles, while the fluorescence network captured only 62. The capture of the target ploughhead was not affected by the fluorescence net. They are now cooperating with Peru’s larger fisheries and testing them with different colors to see if they can still achieve this effect and apply it to endangered species.
One of Prodelphinus research coordinators and one of the main authors of the paper, Mangel, said: “This is exciting because this very difficult job has been achieved in small fisheries. There are very few ways to reduce bycatch of sea turtles. These lights are One of the choices is that the population of sea turtles in the East Pacific is the most vulnerable in the world, and we hope that through the reduction of bycatch, especially gill-net fishing, we will help manage the recovery of these creatures.”
Prof. Brendan Godley pointed out: “Thousands of endangered sea turtles have died from accidental catching around the world. We hope this study will provide a solution. It is a pleasure to be a member of the research team. This innovative method can help The fish industry is moving towards sustainable development. International non-governmental organizations and the vast majority of fisheries can widely implement fishing net lighting to reduce the accidental capture of sea turtles.”
Eileen Sobeck, the fishery administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said: “The by-catch is a complex global issue that threatens the sustainable development and resilience of our fisheries, economy, and marine ecosystem. Funding research like this helps NOAA to work hard to reduce by-catch. This work allows us to better conserve natural resources.”
