14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new study in the journal Biology Letters, it might be possible to use fishing nets that emit ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths to reduce turtle bycatch, maybe even save other aquatic creatures from being pulled out of the water together with species targeted by fishermen.
The researchers who worked on developing a prototype for these ultraviolet fishing nets explain that the nets that fishermen presently use don't discriminate between various animal species, meaning that they trap whatever creature is ill-inspired enough to try and swim through them.
“Bycatch of threatened species such as sea turtles and marine mammals is often a major concern because some bycatch rates are so large that it threatens the entire population of those species,” explains study author John Wang, as cited by Mongabay.
The idea is to solve this problem by rolling out fishing nets that do not alter the behavior of species that fishermen wish to catch, but that cause other marine animals to swim away and thus keep safe. Apparently, UV wavelengths might just do the trick.
Researchers say that, after carrying out several experiments, they found that loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles were significantly more sensitive to UV light than many fish species were.
They thus concluded that, should they create fishing nets that emit such wavelengths, it might be possible to reduce sea turtle bycatch.
“Understanding the sensory physiology of sea turtles and fish species helped us in choosing to use UV illumination. By using UV light, we have a used a selective means of communicating to sea turtles but not to fish,” explains researcher John Wang.
The researchers have until now created 11 such fishing nets that are being tested in Peru, Southern Baja California, Brazil and Indonesia. Preliminary reports say that sea turtle bycatch has been significantly reduced in the areas where these nets are used by fishermen.
Hopefully, it will not be long until the UV emitting nets like these ones start being used on a much wider scale.