In order to save sea turtles from dying in fishing nets fishery managers have tapped a Cape Cod company to make a device that can help minimizing the death of sea turtles and enhances profitable fishing. The new device is called a “tow-time logger” which is a 7-inch, silver cylinder that attaches to fishing nets and records how long the net stays underwater. That time is crucial if a turtle gets snared in the nets dragged behind fishing trawlers. Federal research indicates the vast majority of sea turtles survive entanglement — but only if the net is pulled up in less than 50 minutes.
It is observed that this device can help regulators avoiding other, potentially more onerous, restrictions on perpetually struggling fishermen — such as shutting down fishing areas or requiring turtle-saving gear that doesn’t work well in all nets. Elizabeth Griffin of the environmental group, Oceana, opined that sea turtles have also been around since the time of the dinosaurs.
It is told that the logger was built under a $25,000 federal contract with NOAA by Onset Computer Corp., a Bourne-based supplier of data loggers for energy and environmental monitoring. The device is said to start recording water depth every 30 seconds once the net drops below two meters. If the net stays under beyond a preset time limit, the logger records it, and the infraction can be discovered when regulators download its data.
The test of the device proved successful and work is ongoing to toughen it for the real-life rigors, such as being banged on fishing boat decks. Griffin says there’s also not enough data on how trapped turtles fare in colder waters, so no one really knows how long they can be kept under and survive.
