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More than 80% of right whales in the North Atlantic are entangled in fishing lines at least once in their lifetime, making them one of the leading killers of endangered whale species of disappearance. Today, thanks to the new entanglement simulation technology, New England Aquarium scientists are striving to change that.
Tim Werner, senior scientist at the Anderson Cabot Center for Aquarium Aquaculture, is one of the researchers who collaborated with scientists at Duke University to develop a graphical model that gives them an opportunity to study entanglements and potential solutions in a practical and humane way. Aquarium officials said in a press release.
"This gives us a tool that we can immediately use to say," If you have an idea, evaluate it ", and we can evaluate it over several days rather than over several years," Werner said in an interview telephone.
The purpose of the model development was to reverse entanglements in order to find ways to modify fishing gear to reduce the risk to helpless marine animals.
"If you can recreate the way the rope wraps around the animal in the pattern, you can find a way to change gear to reduce the risk of entanglement as a whole," he said. said Werner, according to the release.
The findings of the researchers were published Monday in the journal Marine Mammal Science. The aquarium researchers worked with professors Duke Laurens Howle and Doug Nowacek.
The graphic model designed by scientists is an interactive simulator that allows them to control a virtual right whale on a screen with the help of a video game controller, allowing them to move the whale through a field of view. virtual fishing lines.
When the whale comes in contact with a fishing line, it performs the type of swimming movements that a true whale does in this case, for example moving away from the rope, giving researchers accurate and valuable information about the interactions between whales and fishing gear, officials said.
The fishing lines of the simulator respond to the contact of the virtual whale as it would in real life. Scientists are able to adjust the configuration of the line, its strength and its flotation capacity to match those of different types of ropes encountered by whales in the ocean, officials said.
If a whale bites on a fishing line, the rope can get entangled in its mouth, which affects its ability to feed. Drag fishing gear, which tends to touch whales with tangled fins, creates a drag in the water that forces whales to exercise extra energy just to move, which is a constant burden. and serious that, over time, can lead to death, officials said.
The North Atlantic right whale is one of three species of whales living in New England waters at the heart of an unusual mortality event. According to scientists at NOAA, scientists believe that the cause of all three factors is human interaction, with North Atlantic right whales and Atlantic minke whales being particularly affected by fishing line entanglements.
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There may be only 411 right whales remaining in the North Atlantic, and this number is expected to decrease as no new births have been reported during the last breeding season. About 71 of the remaining whales are females of reproductive age, officials said.
"If you combine several elements, including the increase in the number of incidents and the severity of entanglements, without adding new individuals to the population this year, you will get an extinction solution," said Werner.
If nothing is done to quickly reduce the number of entanglements, right whales in the North Atlantic could disappear within a few decades, he said.
But right whales are not the only ones fighting against fishing lines.
Other marine animals, including sea turtles, are regularly trapped in fishing gear. Werner said he hopes to apply graphic model technology to other marine animals, including leatherback turtles, which two aquarium veterinarians have treated in the last three weeks.
Werner and his team are also working on long-term solutions to the problem of entanglement. NOAA has recently awarded them $ 226,000 to conduct research on cordless fishing gear that lobster boats could use off the Maine coast instead of traditional vertical lines that cause entanglements.
Vikki Spruill, president and CEO of the aquarium, said in her release that she hoped the team's work would have a lasting impact on local marine species populations.
"It's our mission to find conservation measures that make the difference," she said.
You can contact Andres Picon at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @andpicon.
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