A team of researchers was awarded a $122,000 grant from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration this week to study the efficacy of a new electronic device that could deter sharks from the baits of longline commercial fisherman.
The “bycatch reducing device,” which will be attached along the bait line near hooks of commercial longlines, uses a microprocessor that will emit a faint electric field in the water. This could deter sharks, which posses high level of electrosensitivity, from taking baits meant for other commercially caught species.
The grant will allow researchers from North Carolina State University, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, and Indiana University-South Bend to build a prototype of the device and test it on commercial boats in the U.S. Atlantic fisheries.
“The objective of the project is to keep the sharks away from the fishing gear, not the fishing gear away from the sharks,” said Richard Brill of the Virginia Institute. “To an approaching shark, even a weak electrical impulse can be disorientating or physically painful.”
Ocean Guardian, the company that pioneered “Shark Shield®” technology, will manufacture the first field-ready prototype.
Shark bycatch can reduce catch rates of target species, cause gear damage or loss, and increase gear retrieval times and on-deck sorting of harvestable species.
“NOAA has made reducing shark bycatch a management priority,” said Sara Mirabilio, a fisheries extension specialist with North Carolina Sea Grant. “Positive results from our project would demonstrate that this device could help reduce shark bycatch nationally — and globally.”
