Times & Tails

In response to the escalating development of offshore wind projects, the federal government has introduced a comprehensive strategy to safeguard the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. Released on Thursday, Jan. 25, by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and NOAA Fisheries, the 78-page strategy outlines measures to assess and mitigate potential impacts on the whales and their habitat.

Behind every picture there is a story...this one has quite the journey. This is a complicated picture once you get past the first glance of a full crab trap. For us it represents a year of innovation and all of the highs and lows that go with it. 

Times are a changing! Rope on Demand fishing gear has been created as a direct response to the threat of whale entanglement posed by traditional fishing gear. Although innovation can develop quickly, policy is often slow to change hindering progress in any space. This is good news as Fisheries and Oceans Canada has proposed regulatory changes that would remove the requirement of a marker at the surface to the location of traps. Instead, the proposed changes would allow for rope on command fishing gear deployment as a license condition or variation order.