WTVR • September 21, 2021
There are an estimated 366 North Atlantic Right Whales left on the entire planet. Climate change is making it harder for them to find food. But many experts believe this endangered species' biggest enemy is fishing gear. Philip Hamilton is a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium and has spent decades studying the Right Whale. According to data compiled by the aquarium, nearly 80 percent of Right Whales deaths are caused by entanglement. Rob Morris is with a company called EdgeTech. They have developed a new type of lobster trap that doesn't rely on a fishing line permanently sitting in the water. Instead, they've developed a trap that has a rope kept inside of it. When a fisherman is ready to retrieve that lobster trap, an iPhone application tells it to deploy a buoy to the surface.