September 18, 2023 — Developing on-demand or ‘ropeless’ fish trap gear could allow more fishermen to keep working in the black sea bass fishery from the Carolinas to Florida, even with seasonal closures to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales from gear entanglement.
The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has begun moving toward making pop-up fish pot gear allowable at all times, after three years of testing under an experimental fishery permit from the council.
In 2017 the fishery was tasked with two seasonal closures from December to March and November to April to protect migrating right whales. Adapting the pot fishery to use on-demand gear – without vertical lines, and buoys that can be summoned by signal from fishermen to pop up for retrieval – underwent testing under the council’s EFP.