PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • August 11, 2022
In their latest effort to protect endangered right whales, federal regulators have released a plan to increase the use of on-demand – or ropeless – fishing gear, an initiative that includes expanded testing of the new technology. The vertical lines that connect strings of traps on the ocean floor to buoys on the surface can get caught on a whale’s fins or in its mouth as it swims, leading to death in some cases. There are fewer than 350 North Atlantic right whales. On-demand fishing gear would eliminate the need for the vertical lines in the water until the lobster trap, pot or gillnet is being hauled.