Reducing the Mortality and Serious Injury of North Atlantic Right Whales in the Gulf of Maine

dc.contributor.advisor

Read, Andrew J

dc.contributor.author

Stoni, Taylor

dc.date.accessioned

2021-04-22T20:08:09Z

dc.date.available

2021-04-22T20:08:09Z

dc.date.issued

2021-04-22

dc.department

Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences

dc.description.abstract

The North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) is one of the most critically endangered baleen whales. The most pressing threat to this declining population is entanglement. The Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team recommended measures to reduce the entanglement risk to right whales in fixed gear fisheries in the Gulf of Maine. The central recommendation was to reduce the breaking strength of vertical lines used in these fisheries. We collected data on the breaking strength of unmodified line and lines modified with weak points to develop options for Maine fishermen to reduce entanglement risk to right whales. Our study had three goals: (1) develop a baseline dataset of breaking strength for ropes used in Maine; (2) determine the efficacy of five weak point options in reducing the breaking strength of line to the breaking strength target of 1700 pounds of force (lbsf); and (3) examine if a time tension line cutter (TTLC) could be used as a physical weak point. We tested 140 pieces of straight line and 950 weak point samples. As expected, straight line samples were stronger than those with a weak point. All weak points reduced the breaking strength of each type of line, but no weak point option was successful in reducing all samples to 1700 lbsf. The TTLC could be used as a physical weak point in the fishery, but further studies should be conducted on its ease of use for fishermen. Two of the weak points tested effectively reduced breaking strengths across all rope types, but our results suggest the Maine lobster fishery will require a variety of solutions to reduce risk to right whales.

dc.identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10161/22606

dc.language.iso

en_US

dc.subject

right whales

dc.subject

vertical lines

dc.subject

breaking strength

dc.subject

Maine lobster

dc.subject

risk reduction

dc.subject

Entanglement

dc.title

Reducing the Mortality and Serious Injury of North Atlantic Right Whales in the Gulf of Maine

dc.type

Master's project

duke.embargo.months

0

Files

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
tns24_Masters Project.pdf
Size:
1.85 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description: