Open Ocean

This project will decrease the risk of vessel collisions with whales, particularly large whales in the offshore waters of the Gulf of America. Vessel collisions are a known source of human-caused mortality for many marine mammal species and, in particular, for large whales. Collisions can result in serious injury or death due to either penetrating injuries from propeller cuts or blunt force trauma from collisions with vessel hulls. The true numbers of whale interactions with vessels are typically underestimated.

This project will restore fish through voluntary programs to reduce finfish bycatch in the commercial shrimp trawl fishery. This project will be implemented in partnership with shrimpers and will focus on reducing finfish bycatch through the use of better bycatch reduction devices (BRDs). Project activities include engagement with shrimpers throughout the project, identifying innovative BRDs, validation of BRD effectiveness, voluntary use of better BRDs in the commercial shrimp fleet, outreach workshops, and dockside trainings.

Barotrauma occurs when fish are rapidly brought to the surface from deep water and gases in the fish’s tissues and organs expand and in some cases rupture. When fish suffering from barotrauma are released they can struggle to descend back into the water column to deeper depths, becoming easy prey to predators. Injuries due to barotrauma result in substantial mortality to reef fish in the Gulf of America.

This project will reduce bycatch in the Atlantic and Gulf of America by developing a bycatch hotspot identification system and communication network for fishermen. This phased project will develop a system to create near-real time spatial maps of bycatch hotspots coupled with a communication tool to inform fishermen of the high bycatch potential in those areas.

This project will restore western Atlantic bluefin tuna and other highly migratory species by identifying and sharing fishing practices that reduce bycatch in the pelagic longline (PLL) fishery. This project will involve conducting a pilot study to better define an optimal PLL fishing depth to reduce bycatch of bluefin tuna and other highly migratory species. Results from the pilot study will be shared with the PLL fishery.

This project will develop a web-accessible portal (The Atlas) to provide a central platform to access and view existing and future sea turtle data that are currently dispersed across various entities. The Atlas will be accessible to restoration planners and resource managers, and will better inform sea turtle restoration efforts. The Atlas will be updated over time to ensure that it remains current, easily accessible, and helpful to restoration planning efforts for sea turtles injured by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

This project identified factors contributing to sea turtle incidental captures in the reef fish bottom longline (BLL) fishery and determined whether opportunities to restore loggerhead sea turtles by reducing the number of captures and mortality in the fishery were present. Sea turtle bycatch in reef fish BLL gear can lead to serious injury or death through entanglement in or ingestion of gear. This project thoroughly evaluated existing NOAA observer program data to identify factors that influence the bycatch of loggerhead sea turtles in the eastern Gulf of America reef fish BLL fishery.

This project will develop a strategic plan for coordinated in-water data collection efforts across the Gulf of America and establish standardized monitoring protocols. This effort will provide important context for project and resource-level monitoring, and will allow comparisons across multiple sea turtle restoration projects. Project outcomes will be used to guide the formation of a coordinated sea turtle in-water monitoring network to fill critical data gaps. This project supports all the Trustees’ restoration goals for sea turtles.

This project is working with the Gulf of America menhaden purse seine industry to develop effective observer methods to collect information about interactions with sea turtles and other protected species, and to identify opportunities for voluntary measures to avoid and reduce those interactions. Effective observer methods help collect data necessary to support efforts to reduce the risk of interactions with sea turtle and other protected species in the commercial menhaden fishery and could inform future restoration projects.

This project developed and tested new Turtle Excluder Device (TED) prototype configurations, with smaller bar spacing, for their ability to exclude small juvenile sea turtles. Each new TED design was tested for turtle exclusion using the existing National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) small sea turtle TED testing protocol and for target catch retention aboard commercial fishing vessels.