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Derelict Fishing Gear in Puget Sound: Prioritizing removal, preventing recruitment, and parameterizing efforts to model biological impacts

Pacific; 2008

Background | Partners | Benefits of the Project | Photos | 1-pager

Background

Derelict fishing gear (lost or abandoned commercial and recreational fishing nets, lines, pots, and traps) captures and kills marine wildlife throughout Puget Sound due to its unique topography and long legacy of commercial fishing. Since 2002, a derelict gear removal program has removed over 600 derelict fishing nets, restored 120 acres of marine habitat, and documented the entanglement of almost 20,000 marine mammals, birds, fish, and invertebrates, many of which are of conservation and commercial concern. NOAA Fisheries is involved in analyses to identify “hotspots” for derelict gear recruitment in Puget Sound and estimate the impacts of derelict fishing gear on local marine wildlife.

This project is assessing the potential for fishing gear to become derelict due to underwater obstructions and topographical features of the seafloor. Potential “hotspots” will be identified by overlaying geo-referenced data layers of commercial fishing effort throughout Puget Sound with seafloor topography and locations of derelict vessels and other underwater obstructions using a geographic information systems (GIS) framework. As data collected during gear recovery is just a snapshot of its impact on marine wildlife, this project is also conducting field and laboratory experiments to determine degradation rates of marine birds to help estimate per capita mortality rates for derelict fishing nets in Puget Sound.

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Partners

  • Northwest Straits Commission
  • Natural Resources Consultants, Inc.
  • Seattle Aquarium
  • COASST (Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team)
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Benefits of the Project

  • Facilitates modeling of derelict fishing net impacts on taxa of conservation concern

  • Identifies potential hotspots for derelict fishing gear recruitment in Puget Sound

  • Helps prioritize derelict gear removal

  • Ultimately, reduces and prevents new derelict fishing gear

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Photos

Dead cormorant in derelict gillnet
Dead cormorant in derelict gillnet. Photo courtesy of Natural Resources Consultants, Inc.

Lingcod in derelict net. Photo courtesy of Greg Williams, NOAA Fisheries.
Lingcod in derelict net. Photo courtesy of Greg Williams, NOAA Fisheries.

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1-pager

Download the 1-pager handout (pdf 352KB) on this project here.

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This project is funded through NOAA's Ocean Service, Office of Response & Restoration, Marine Debris Program.

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