Photo voltaic-powered lights hold sea turtles out of fishing nets
by ASU Workers Writers
Tempe AZ (SPX) Oct 16, 2025
Research have proven that lighted nets can cut back bycatch of sea turtles and sharks, however the concept has confronted many hurdles to adoption. The batteries are brief lived, costly to interchange and lift disposal considerations. The lights are too heavy and liable to snagging nets. Fishers discover them tough to work with.
To get previous these hurdles, researchers at Arizona State College collaborated with a group of coastal gillnet fishers to develop solar-powered lights that perform as buoys, like all others threaded onto the float line of a fishing web. The LED lights flash on and off to preserve vitality and might keep energetic for over 5 days with no daylight.
The online-illuminating gear is very efficient at stopping sea turtles from entanglement in gillnets, ASU marine biologist Jesse Senko and colleagues report in a brand new research printed in Conservation Letters. In managed experiments in Mexico’s Gulf of California, sea turtle bycatch charges have been 63% decrease within the solar-powered illuminated nets in comparison with unlit management nets. And the lighted buoys didn’t intervene with fishing success. The researchers recorded increased catch charges of focused yellowtail fish within the illuminated nets, though the distinction was not statistically vital.
“The outcomes have been fairly thrilling,” mentioned Senko, an assistant professor within the ASU Faculty of Ocean Futures. He mentioned the research is the primary to indicate the effectiveness of harnessing photo voltaic vitality and flashing mild to discourage sea turtles from fishing nets. “It is a win-win within the sense that you just’re getting a light-weight that lasts considerably longer, and it additionally appears to scale back bycatch simply as successfully as lights that require replaceable batteries.”
Fishing gear entanglement is a main risk to endangered sea turtles, together with local weather change, air pollution, habitat loss and rising illnesses. Regardless of indicators of restoration amongst some species, present inhabitants numbers stay a small fraction of the full that when existed.
“Sea turtles are necessary for sustaining wholesome oceans, that are wanted to maintain resilient fisheries,” Senko mentioned. “They’ve been round for over 100 million years, they usually fulfill ecological roles that no different species fulfill.”
Senko has made it a precedence in his lab to work with fishers to develop methods to make fishing gear much less dangerous to sea turtles, sharks and different threatened species. The objective is to develop sensible options that may be broadly deployed to scale back wasteful bycatch whereas sustaining productive fisheries.
In coastal North Carolina, the place many forces have threatened the fishing lifestyle, Senko Lab members are collaborating with fishers to scale back bycatch in pound nets, bottom-anchored web programs that funnel fish right into a lure. The ASU researchers are evaluating the numbers of turtles, sharks and different species caught in nets on days with or with out solar-powered lights. They’re additionally gathering observations of sea turtle conduct by no means seen earlier than utilizing custom-designed underwater video cameras and information recorders.
Sustaining resilient fisheries
Small-scale coastal fisheries present practically half of the world’s seafood, Senko factors out, and they’re essential to sustaining coastal communities with meals, earnings, and livelihoods.
The thought for integrating solar-powered LED lights into buoys got here from fishermen in Mexico, brothers Juan Pablo Cuevas Amador and Felipe Cuevas Amador, who’re co-authors of the brand new research.
“They took us under consideration and gave us the liberty to present our opinions and make modifications,” mentioned Juan Pablo Cuevas Amador. “For us, it is necessary that or not it’s accomplished in collaboration as a result of with what they know and what we all know, we will do fairly attention-grabbing issues.”
Senko mentioned fisher-led concepts are “the place the true magic occurs; that is the significant innovation. As a result of their concepts went into it, they’re extra prone to need to use it and to share that info with their buddies and their group and with neighboring communities.”
After finishing the fishing experiments, the Cuevas Amador brothers requested Senko if they may hold the solar-powered lighted buoys. The gear made fishing simpler as a result of they not needed to waste a lot effort and time eradicating turtles from nets.
“Once I heard that, I knew we have been onto one thing,” Senko mentioned. “They usually’ve been fishing with these lights ever since. So far as we all know, they’re the one fishers on the planet fishing with solar-powered lighted nets.”
Senko and colleagues at the moment are working with a producer, Fishtek Marine, to supply commercially out there solar-powered lighted buoys for fishing nets. Senko mentioned it is attainable to make them out there for buy inside 2 to three years. Analysis on their effectiveness might encourage conservation organizations and authorities companies to offer grants or subsidies to assist fishers purchase them. Senko has acquired funding for the analysis from Schmidt Marine Know-how Companions, the Disney Conservation Fund, and the Nationwide Philanthropic Belief.
The researchers are pursuing future research to know the behavioral responses of sea turtles to flashing mild, and use that data to maximise the deterrent results of web illumination.
“A 63% discount in sea turtle bycatch is a powerful start line. Nevertheless, there is not any purpose why that may’t be improved, proper?” Senko says. “My objective is how can we get that 63% discount to a 95% discount.”
Analysis Report:Harnessing solar energy to reduce sea turtle bycatch
Associated Hyperlinks
ASU School of Ocean Futures
All About Solar Energy at SolarDaily.com
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