10/16/2021
What's Ropeless Fishing, you wonder?
I'm glad you ask.
Ropeless fishing is the solution to whales and other large mammals getting tangled up in equipment retrieval lines.
In lobster and crab fisheries, vertical lines that connect traps on the seafloor to buoys at the water’s surface pose a threat of entanglement for marine mammals—which in Atlantic Canada and New England include the critically endangered North Atlantic Right whale.
This new technology allows fishermen to signal their gear to surface with no vertical lines by using a transducer to acoustically trigger the release of a stowed rope and buoy from a trap on the seafloor that brings the gear to the surface.
So of course, we had to get involved.
DiveNet hydroacoustic modems are currently being tested in live conditions by our partners at who have developed the trap retrieval mechanism.
We look forward to providing a turnkey solution to fisheries in New England or anywhere else, who wish to transition to ropeless fishing.
