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edwinthowaway t1_j4x5p8q wrote

Reply to comment by Megraptor in 4-year-old whale of one of the world's rarest species is "likely to die" after becoming heavily entangled, NOAA says - CBS News by Simple_Opossum

There is little that can be done about ghosts gear. The lobster industry could stop fishing tomorrow and that would still be there. I don’t get your point. A lobster fished today with new gear does nothing about ghost gear. All they can do is use the best gear today.

You say err on the side of caution, then fine. Shut the industry down and start paying lobster fishermen not to fish ($750,000,000 a year). But all of a sudden, costs will matter when it’s not the lobsterman’s wallets we are hitting.

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Megraptor t1_j55m60s wrote

Point is, gear today is still getting stuck on NARWs, marks or not. It's just old gear can't be traced to anywhere, and the data that many people are citing that says it's not US lobster pots is from before the pots were marked.

There are other solutions than to just shut it down completely. Ropeless pots are a thing.
https://ropeless.org/background/

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edwinthowaway t1_j564goc wrote

> gear today

> old gear

These are not the same thing. All they can do is change what they use today. Even ropeless pots that you suggest do not magically eliminate old gear. My point is, they have taken steps to make the gear they use today traceable. They cannot go back in time and do it to already lost gear.

And who is paying for every lobster boat to get ropeless gear?

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