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Sea Turtle Fixed-Gear Workshop Generates Ideas for Reducing EntanglementsFishermen, state and federal fisheries managers, gear technologists, nongovernmental organizations, sea turtle biologists, and sea turtle stranding and disentanglement network members from Virginia to Canada came together in Rhode Island in April to “share information, hear a diversity of opinions, and explore new ideas for reducing entanglements and disentangling sea turtles,” said David Beutel, work-shop facilitator and a Rhode Island Sea Grant fisheries extension specialist. Sea turtles become incidentally entangled in fixed fishing gear, and if unable to get free, they can drown. NOAA Fisheries' Northeast Regional Office (NERO) has documented these interactions in their region, which ex-tends from the Canadian border to the Mid-Atlantic. In response to fixed-gear entanglements, the agency initiated the Sea Turtle Disentanglement Network (STDN) in 2002, but realized that pre-venting entanglement in the first place was a more proactive step in addressing turtle-gear interactions. To that end, they enlisted Sea Grant's help in facilitating the workshop. “The charge for these two days is to better understand how and why turtles become entangled in lines, consider solutions and ideas to reduce entanglements, and improve entanglement response and reporting,” said Carrie Upite, NERO biologist. The first day of the workshop pulled together information on sea turtles in the region, their life histories and where they are found, their interactions with fishing gear, and how the STDN is responding to entanglements. The day concluded with a hands-on gear demonstration and description of various gear configurations and options currently being used by the fishing industry. The second day engaged participants in breakout group discussions around the options for reducing sea turtle entanglement in vertical lines (the up-and-down lines attached to buoys or markers where most sea turtles entangle) and options for improving disentanglement. “I feel that the workshop was a great success based on the discussions we had and your willingness to think about potential ways to reduce sea turtle entanglements,” reflected Sara McNulty, NERO sea turtle stranding coordinator. “Over the next several months, NERO will be looking into research options and prioritizing the ideas that came out of the workshop.” Proceedings of the workshop, including the outcomes and ideas from the group discussions are being compiled by Rhode Island Sea Grant and should be available from NERO by the end of the summer. “We need a stronger outreach program when it comes to sea turtles. This outreach needs to be proactive. If we can be proactive, we're not reactive, and when we're reactive, we're defensive,” said Beutel. “When working together with a multitude of ideas, we will make progress. We have identified ideas for research on gear and turtle behavior. This is a good start.” —Malia Schwartz
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