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California coalition will combine whale tracking and fishing data to reduce entanglements
A new three-year effort will bring scientists, conservation groups and commercial fishers together to track whales and inform decisions in the Dungeness crab fishery. Its findings are intended to help California manage entanglement risks while sustaining fishing communities.
A new coalition of marine scientists, commercial fishers and conservation organizations is launching a three-year effort to reduce whale entanglements in California’s Dungeness crab fishery while supporting the fishing industry.
The Dungeness Crab and Whale Conservation Collaborative was announced this week by The Marine Mammal Center, the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations and The Nature Conservancy. The Clean Break Fund is providing a three-year grant for the work; the grant amount was not disclosed.
The effort will combine information from vessel surveys, drones, shore-based observations, underwater acoustic gliders and satellite detections to build a clearer picture of where whales are and how they move.
The Marine Mammal Center will lead development of an integrated whale-monitoring system. The fishermen’s association will engage commercial fishers in surveys and investigations of entanglements. The Nature Conservancy will work to expand monitoring, develop fishing-gear recovery technology and improve data systems used in fishery management.
Other participants include Cascadia Research Collective, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and Point Blue Conservation Science.
The coalition plans to share its findings with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and other partners. The data are intended to inform the state’s Risk Assessment and Mitigation Program, which helps manage whale-entanglement risks in the fishery.
Organizers say more timely information about whale presence could help guide fishing activity, with the goal of protecting marine mammals while maintaining a sustainable Dungeness crab fishery and supporting the communities that depend on it.