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Puget Sound Derelict Fishing Gear: Assessing the Problem and Prioritizing Solutions Ginny Broadhurst, Northwest Straits Commission, Mount Vernon, WA; Jeff June and Kyle Antonelis, Natural Resources Consultants, Seattle, WA; Joan Drinkwin, Northwest Straits Foundation, Mount Vernon, WA; Tom Good, NOAA Fisheries, Seattle, WA. Puget Sound has a long history of fishing. For decades, Puget Sound had a gillnet fleet of over 3000 licensed gillnetters. During fishing operations, gill nets frequently snagged and got hung up on the rocky reefs and outcroppings that occur in many areas of Puget Sound. Crabbing has long been popular among residents looking for dinner fare as well as those making their living from it. Crab pot lines are easily clipped by passing vessels, particularly after dark and the pots end up on the seabed floor, still fishing for crabs, sometimes for years. Until recently, thousands of nets and pots were in Puget Sound with few people understanding that this derelict gear was causing significant damage to fish, birds, crabs, marine mammals and the marine habitats that support those species. The primary concerns of derelict fishing gear are: threats to human safety (entanglements of divers, hazards to navigation), impacts to marine life and marine habitats, property damage (primarily to vessels) and economic impacts of the loss of commercially valuable species. In 2002 the Northwest Straits Commission worked with state and federal agencies, tribal managers and commercial fishing groups to establish a derelict fishing gear removal program. Removal methods were developed and a “no fault” reporting system and database were established. Once protocols were established, the Commission started to survey for derelict fishing gear and remove it, as funding allowed. The impacts of the derelict gear were observed and documented. In Puget Sound, gillnets and crab pots are the most common types of gear that we find. The nets are essentially a legacy issue – thousands of nets were lost decades ago, few are being lost now by a very small fleet of gillnetters. Tens of thousands of crab pots (commercial and sport) were lost over the years and continue to be lost and many of those pots are set without a legal rot cord (escape cord). Thirty six percent of crab pots recovered were still actively fishing. We presented information on the derelict gear program at the 2007 Puget Sound Georgia Basin conference. We’ve conducted a significant amount of removal operations and research since then. We completed a Cost Benefit Analysis and a Prioritization Process in 2007. Our Net Mortality Study was completed in May 2008. A Habitat Recovery study was completed in February 2009 and a crab mortality study is expected to be done in August 2009. All reports are available on our website www.nwstraits.org. To date, we have removed 1000 nets covering 239 acres and over 1600 crab pots. We recorded over 30,000 dead animals representing 112 different species that died in the gear. New species and mortality numbers are continually being added to the database as we continue with removal operations. This presentation will focus on the prioritization process that we conducted in order to identify the highest priority sites for removal operations, to quantify the total amount of gear accumulations in Puget Sound and to estimate the cost of removing all the gear. We invited experts to participate in a technical advisory groupi to develop criteria for ranking removal priorities. The group established the highest priority removal areas as: those with critical habitat for ESA listed species; important to marine mammals, seabirds and migrating wild salmon; and protected areas. The San Juan Islands and North Puget Sound qualify as high priority areas for removal. A total of 2855 derelict nets were estimated in those areas. Those geographic areas will receive highest attention for removal but certain gear reports will also trigger quick removal response by our team. Derelict nets that threaten human safety or present a hazard to navigation will receive highest priority and removal crews will redirect efforts as quickly as possible to respond in those situations. We respond to about 6 – 8 emergency removal operations per year. The advisory group also stated a preference for clearing gear from areas that were likely to remain free of gear in the future. Some areas that continue to be heavily fished and continue to accumulate gear losses (e.g. Point Roberts) were ranked lower than areas known to have high accumulations but not receiving a lot of new gear (e.g. southern Lopez Island). Nets were determined to be a higher priority than crab pots since species affected most by the pots (Dungeness and red rock crab) are in relatively healthy conditions in Puget Sound. A map was developed to illustrate areas of concern for critical species and habitats that support those species. We performed additional surveys to quantify the accumulations of nets and pots in Puget Sound. Surveys for nets are done with divers looking in sites where there has historically been a high degree of fishing and/or where we’ve received reports of nets. Pot surveys are done with side scan sonar that shows individual pots and records exact locations. Extrapolating from these surveys, we estimated that 4000 nets and 14,000-20,000 pots remain derelict in Puget Sound. Two hundred and twenty one nets were removed in San Juan County in 2008, an area that we established as a “high priority area”. More than 10,000 animals were found in these nets including 6 mammals, 144 birds and 103 fish. Seventy five percent of the nets were actively fishing and killing marine life. That is significantly higher than the average elsewhere in Puget Sound. These data prove that our prioritization efforts were effective in guiding us to high impact gear that is causing the most damage. On-going operations will continue to focus on high priority areas and high priority gear (that posing imminent threat to people or critically important species. We set a goal to remove 90% of the nets in Puget Sound by 2012 and are hopeful to meet that goal. i Advisory group members represented Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Washington Department of Natural Resources, Puget Sound Partnership, National Marine Fisheries Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Tulalip Tribes, Puget Sound Gillnetters Association and Natural Resources Consultants Inc. Puget Sound Derelict Fishing Gear: Assessing the problem and prioritizing solutions Puget Sound Long history of fishing Lots of rocky habitats Fjord-like estuary Biologically rich ecosystem And… a legacy of fishing gear Derelict Fishing Gear Concerns Human Safety Marine life Marine habitats Property damage Economic impacts Derelict Fishing Gear in Puget Sound • Gill nets (legacy issue) • Crab pots (on-going) Research since last PSGB conference Cost Benefit Analysis – Sept 07 Prioritization process – Dec 07 Net mortality study – May 08 Habitat recovery – Feb 09 Crab mortality study – pending Reports available at www.nwstraits.org Prioritization process • Identify highest priority sites for removal • Quantify total amount of gear accumulations • Estimate costs of removal Advisory group Developed criteria: threats to human safety, navigation and highest impacts to critical species habitat WDFW, DNR, PS Partnership NOAA, USFWS Tulalip Tribes PS Gillnetters Assoc NRC Inc Change in Removal after Prioritization process • Nets in high priority areas are removed first (causing most damage to marine resources) • Continue to respond to human safety issues as quickly as possible 221 SJC nets and species impacts More than 10,000 animals found 6 mammals 144 birds 103 fish 9,947 invertebrates 75% of nets were lethal 49 acres of marine habitat covered Net Mortality Study Assess the rate at which derelict nets entangle marine animals and measure rate of decomposition of those animals • • 4 sites chosen Minimum of 3 dives on each net to tag and identify species • Net Mortality Findings 76 birds/year/net 153 fish/year/net 1,117 invertebrates/year/net Animals decomposed/consumed < 2 weeks 17% of animals, bones, and shells drop out of nets during removal - not counted on board Thanks Jeff June, Kyle Antonelis NRC Inc Doug Monk, Justin, Ken, Jack Joan Drinkwin, NWS Foundation Tom Good, NOAA Funding and moral support: NOAA, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Governor’s Office USFWS, EPA, PSP, WDFW, DNR Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Initiative A Local Approach to Protecting and Restoring Marine Resources and Habitats
