Oceana campaigns to reduce whale and sea turtle entanglements in commercial fishing gears by furthering responsible fishery management measures and advancing innovative fishing gear solutions.

REDUCING WHALE AND SEA TURTLE ENTANGLEMENT RISK IN THE CALIFORNIA DUNGENESS CRAB FISHERY

In California, Oceana staff serve on the California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group. The working group helped develop California’s Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program (RAMP) designed to reduce entanglement risk for threatened and endangered humpback whales, blue whales, and Pacific leatherback sea turtles. Under the RAMP program, fishery managers can implement several conservation actions to reduce entanglement risk in the Dungeness crab fishery based on confirmed entanglements or an increased presence of whales and sea turtles. The conservation measures include time and area closures to enable whales to safely feed and migrate, reduced limits on the number of crab pots and lines that can be deployed, depth restrictions on where gear can be set, and the approval of alternative fishing gears.

REDUCING WHALE AND SEA TURTLE ENTANGLEMENT RISK IN THE OREGON DUNGENESS CRAB FISHERY

In Oregon, Oceana staff serve on the Oregon Entanglement Advisory Committee which advises the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on actions to reduce whale and sea turtle entanglement risk in the Oregon Dungeness crab fishery. The agency first implemented temporary entanglement risk reduction measures for the Oregon commercial crab fishery in 2021, and then in 2023 the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission made those rules permanent. The conservation measures include a mandatory 20 percent reduction in crab pot limits and a prohibition on commercial crabbing in waters deeper than 40-fathoms (240 feet) during the “late-season” which runs May 1 until the end of the crabbing season (mid-August). More work is needed to advance a comprehensive conservation approach. Read our fact sheet here.

ADVANCING “POP-UP” FISHING GEARS

Pop-up fishing gear, also referred to as “ropeless” or “on-demand” fishing gear, is an innovative technology that reduces or eliminates the use of vertical lines while fishing, removing the entanglement threat. Whales and sea turtles swimming by or feeding can get tangled in this line which can wrap around a whale’s mouth, fluke, or pectoral fins, or around the flippers and neck of a sea turtle. Rather than a rope connecting a trap on the seafloor to a buoy at the surface, pop-up gear stores the rope and buoy with the trap on the ocean floor until fishermen are ready to retrieve the gear. When ready, the rope and buoy are released and float to the surface where the gear can be retrieved. Oceana is working to advance testing of pop-up gears and get pop-up gears authorized as alternative gear for use in spring fishing months to allow continued fishing opportunities in the presence of whales. To learn more about pop-up gear click here.