“The ocean bottom isn’t like looking down a paved road,” said lobsterman Philip Bramhall, of Friendship. “It’s like looking at a topographical map.” Bramhall went on to explain that unlike any other state on the Eastern seaboard the bottom off Maine’s 3,500-mile coastline is made up of types that range from sand, mud and gravel to boulders and ledges; and depths that vary from flat to canyons. But more importantly, Maine waters have fierce currents and strong tides that grow stronger and higher from west to east culminating in the world’s highest tides in the Bay of Fundy, just off the Downeast coast.
Those tides, currents and challenging bottom are what convinced the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to fund research by the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) to find out how these forces affect the ropes that link two or more lobster traps.
The ropes, called ground line or tailer ropes, often made of a floating polypropylene because of its strength, are light in weight and tend to arc or loop up towards the surface as high as 40 feet off the ocean floor. Whales, swimming around with their mouths open as they feed, can catch the line in their mouths and become entangled. As they twist and turn, trying to extricate themselves, they often make matters worse and the rope cuts into their skin, sometimes to the bone. Though they have been known to shed the gear themselves, often, if not rescued, they can sicken and die. And as anyone who doesn’t live in a bubble must surely know by now, right whales have been designated an Endangered Species. The Fisheries Service has been sued by various conservation groups for permitting these entanglements and deaths, and has been told to solve the problem.
The best solution, of course, would be to rid the waters of marine rope. In an effort to do so, NMFS initiated the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan and took what many considered draconian action in 1994, limiting gillnet fishing so drastically that most gillnetters left the fishery and turned to lobstering.
Despite the virtual demise of the gillnet fishery, as right whales and other whale species continued to wind themselves in marine rope, NMFS sought other ways to lower the risk of further entanglements. Since floating ground line seemed a likely culprit, NMFS ordered it replaced in certain fishing areas with rope that either sinks to the ocean bottom (called sinking line) or that hangs suspended just off the bottom (called neutrally buoyant line).
“Wait. We can’t,” declared Terry Stockwell, Resource Management Coordinator for the DMR, when confronted with the federal order. “Our state’s different.” He – and many others – argued that Maine’s tidal and rocky ocean bottom should be treated differently.
NMFS Marine Mammal Coordinator for the New England Regional Office, David Gouveia, said he countered with, “Okay, what do we do?”
Stockwell replied, “Let me do some research to find out.” NMFS agreed and, surprisingly, gave Maine two years to come up with a way to reduce the amount of the loop or arc in the floating ground line to as close to the bottom as possible. That Stockwell was able to convince the Fisheries Service to give Maine two years for research is, in itself, a remarkable achievement.
Stockwell’s plan for equal protection of the whale and of the commercial fishing industry is twofold: to document by underwater video the effects of current, tide and bottom on the existing rope that connects two or more traps; and to have fishermen help find ways to, as he says, “lower the profile” of floating ground line. He defines this profile as “a side outline of the rope over the bottom, as seen by the video camera.”
The Fisheries Service, in collaboration with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, funded the plan; and Laura Ludwig, who administers the DMR’s whale program, is ROV Documentation Director.
The DMR awarded Ocean Eye Underwater Inspection Services, of Warwick, RI, the contract for filming traps from Kittery to Eastport. It awarded the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA) the contract for vessel support: the vessels from which the Remote Observation Vehicle would be deployed. “The concept of awarding the MLA was to get as broad a base of vessels as possible, so we can involve more fishermen,” Stockwell said in mid-September. “Every day we’re putting the camera on another vessel, and this is counter to the way science is usually done.” Stockwell chose to involve and include fishermen from each port and to compensate them for their time instead of asking them to volunteer. The DMR awarded lobstermen Bramhall and Michael Myrick, of Cushing, contracts for gear modification research. Stockwell also applied to the National Marine Fisheries Service for an area to be exempted from all gear modifications, explaining, “You can’t have these guys modifying gear up in the bays and rivers where there are never any whales.”
Last winter the DMR ran a pilot project, documenting floating ground lines in Casco Bay, off Mount Desert, and off Cutler to get a sense of what was needed.
The filming began at Kittery on Sept. 1. It will end in Eastport in early October, after documenting the effects of floating ground line at 28 ports along the coast. Ludwig and others will edit and study the film and make it available for viewing. According to all interested parties, the project has already been an enormous success. Each party has praised the other: Gouveia, at the Fisheries Service, said what a great job Stockwell is doing; Stockwell praised Gouveia, Ludwig and the fishermen involved in gear research; Bramhall and Myrick praised Gouveia, et al.; Ludwig spoke highly about everybody, particularly the MLA’s Patrice Farrey and Carla Morin.
Bramhall took the ROV, Ludwig and crew on his boat Sept. 15, documenting ground line and bottom in Muscongus Bay, north of Monhegan. “We went on several different shoals,” he said, “and looked at different rope profiles. The bottom was rocky, sandy and muddy. It was neat. I enjoyed it.”
“Oh, my word,” Ludwig exclaimed. “I can’t tell you how great it’s been. We’ve been getting excellent images. We’ve been getting excellent participation and involvement from the fishermen. We have been working very closely with the MLA. It’s fantastic from a public relations standpoint and from a logistic standpoint, as well. Response from the industry has been fantastic. [The fishermen] have been forthcoming on the whole. Gear research is critical,” she continued, “and I would say this is the first full phase of it.”
Bramhall and Myrick are investigating possibilities for rope that can lie close to the bottom and withstand the abuse of powerful tides, currents and rocks. For the past month, Myrick has been trying out five traps set with configurations of floating and sinking rope in various combinations, testing the rope for its longevity. Bramhall will do the same on blowy days and in winter. Myrick said he knows some fishermen who tried using neutrally buoyant rope, and reported, “It acts pretty much like sink rope does, but it chafes up real quick. It hasn’t worked like they thought it would or as good as what they hoped for.”
Bramhall said, “Basically we’ve got to come up with the proper combination for reducing the profile,” and each has more ideas he’s willing to try. “Now that we have the financing more in line,” he said, “we can go to other people, like the rope companies, and have them work on it.”
Even whale entanglement expert Bob Bowman, Maine Project Director for the Center for Coastal Studies, who would prefer all risk to whales be removed, said, “I don’t really care if it’s sinking rope or …” he let his sentence trail off. “The more rope that we can get out of more of the water column, the better.” He went on to say lowering the rope profile, even if the same amount of rope is in the water, reduces risk. Though he admitted some whales, following food, go right to the bottom and may become entangled, he said, “I think we’re talking about a pretty major risk reduction.”
It won’t come any too soon. Mary Colligan, Chief of NMFS’s Protected Resources Division, noted that there were eight entangled right whales and four mortalities in 2002. So far this year, she reported there have been four right whale entanglements, but no mortalities. “NMFS has elevated the threat alert,” Stockwell said in mid-September, “and will be going through a rule-making process to amend the Take Reduction Plan.”