California Coast & Ocean

No scientific studies have been done on the impacts of derelict fishing gear on marine life in California waters. Every year, however, wildlife rehabilitation facilities along the coast care for seals, sea lions, and birds that are brought in with severe injuries due to entanglement.

Fortunately, derelict fishing gear in the ocean is a problem we can do something about: we can remove it.

The nation’s first comprehensive effort to do this began in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in 1988. So far, NOAA Fisheries (formerly the National Marine Fisheries Service), working with 16 other agencies and organizations, has removed 495 tons of derelict gear, according to Mary Donohue of the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program in Honolulu.

In 2002, a second program was launched in Washington state. Nearly 1,000 nets, pots, and traps have been removed from the water since then. Nearly 500 entangled fish—including endangered salmon and rockfish species—and four marine mammals have been counted. In this program, the Northwest Straits Commission and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife have teamed up with Natural Resources Consultants, Inc., of Seattle. Much of the actual removal is done by sea urchin fishermen—experts at working long hours underwater—who work for the program during their off-season. After the gear is located by sonar, as well as visually by SCUBA divers, the removers, wearing dry suits and breathing surface-supplied air, descend into the water and detach the objects found.

Removing a net draped over rocks without harming marine life requires careful cutting and gentle detachment. Nets and pots embedded in muddy or sandy bottom are freed by hand-digging. If a live animal is enmeshed or trapped in the gear, the diver gently disentangles it and sets it free.

A hydraulic winch is used to lift the gear to the surface and bring it aboard. On deck, the team biologist collects data on the type of gear (e.g., recreational vs. commercial), and the number and species of dead organisms present, if any. Carcasses are returned to the water to decompose naturally or be scavenged.