EHL continues to work with the fishing community to eliminate the entanglement of whales in fishing gear. A new state permit will help.

While no one wants to kill whales, when tens of thousands of traps for lobster and crab are placed on the ocean floor with buoy lines to mark the trap location going to the surface, whales are entangled and suffer gruesome deaths. Fortunately, gear is available – called “pop-up” – that does not have these lines but rather has a buoy that is stored on the bottom and surfaces when remotely triggered. This approach also reduces lost gear. This saves fishers money in the long term and prevents the lost gear from continuing to trap animals and kill animals, so called "ghost fishing." Pop-up gear is more expensive, though, and change has been resisted by the commercial fishing industry.

To introduce and train fishers in using the new gear in Southern California, EHL,  other conservation groups (Natural Resources Defense Council and Ocean Defenders Alliance), and Sustainable Seas Technology (SST) formed the Marine Innovation Gear Alliance (MIGA). In the past two years, we have raised funds to implement training and to study the costs of transition. Watch the video here.

Along with Southern California crab fishers, SST applied for an “Experimental Fishing Permit” under a program of the California Fish and Game Commission to test pop-up gear for a type of crab – box crab – that lives in deep waters. EHL testified in favor of the permit, and with the support of the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, the permit was approved on June 15, 2023. Participating fishers will be on the water soon. We hope to build confidence in the new techniques.

EHL is grateful to the fishers involved, who stepped forward to innovate in spite of peer pressure, and to project funders, including the Malk Nature Fund and the Warne Fund for Endangered Species at the Orange County Community Foundation.

MIGA is also working to direct monies from upcoming state natural resource bonds into pop-up gear employment.