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Fishing Smarter
Fisherman Phil Ruhle Sr. (above) and his team from Rhode Island beat out more than 70 contenders from 22 countries to take the Smart Gear grand prize of $30,000.
© WWF
Each year, fishing gear catches and kills billions of marine animals that are not the fishers’ target – they are “bycatch.” WWF’s International Smart Gear Competition inspires the invention of gear that increases selectivity for target fish species while reducing bycatch. In 2007, a team from Rhode Island beat out more than 70 contenders from 22 countries to take the Smart Gear grand prize of $30,000. Here, fisherman Phil Ruhle Sr. (right) talks about how his winning team came up with “The Eliminator.”
WWF: Why did you decide to enter our Smart Gear competition?
Phil Ruhle Sr.: Well, I deal with the problem of bycatch every day. I make my living fishing off New England, and regulations restrict our total allowable catch of haddock based on our ability to limit bycatch. In fact, we’re required to use a haddock separator trawl that reduces bycatch of “stocks of concern,” such as cod and flounder. So a lot of us spend time thinking about how to rig the fishing gear to reduce bycatch even more, so we can increase our allowable catch.
2008 Spring Report
This article is a part of WWF's 2008 Spring Report.
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WWF: How did you get started on the idea for “The Eliminator”?
PR: I fish with Jim O’Grady and my son, Phil Jr. I’ve been fishing for 40-odd years and my son is the fourth generation of fishermen in our family – his son will probably be the fifth. A while back, the three of us were talking about the haddock separator trawl that was being implemented in the U.S., and how the Canadian fisheries were already using it and having a lot of problems. We were trying to figure what would work better. That’s when we had the idea of adapting one of our squid nets – which have been successfully reducing bycatch for years – to see what effect it would have on bycatch of codfish in the haddock fishery.
The haddock separator trawl already being implemented sorted haddock from other species by capitalizing on a basic difference in fish behavior: When trapped in a tow, haddock swim upward, while the bycatch species swim downward. Our aim was to adapt the successful squid net to sort haddock from bycatch more effectively – again, so we could increase total allowable catch of haddock. We got together with Jon Knight – he’s the founder of Superior Trawl in Narragansett – and he helped us adapt a large mesh squid net. We made it so that as soon as haddock enter the net and swim upward, they are captured in the smaller mesh upper section, but as soon as species that swim downward enter the net, they escape easily through large mesh openings.
While out at sea on the F/V Iron Horse, Jim O’Grady and his crew change nets to test The Eliminator, an innovative trawl net that reduces bycatch – the unintended take of species that are not the fishers’ target.
© Laura Skrobe, Rhode Island Sea Grant
WWF: What makes The Eliminator such a standout?
PR: The key advantage of The Eliminator is that it separates and releases bycatch right at the mouth of the net. This means the haddock we take are cleaner – they don’t get so beat up from being hauled in with spiny creatures we’re not even targeting. Likewise, the unintended catch is less likely to get injured or killed because it is released right away.
We got together with Laura Skrobe and David Beutel, fisheries researchers at the University of Rhode Island, on a research proposal to test the trawl. We ran four side-by-side trips in which The Eliminator was compared with a traditional net. The results were incredible: The Eliminator caught the same amount of haddock as the other net, but we reduced the overall flounder catch by 95 percent and the cod catch by more than 80 percent. It also significantly reduced bycatch of skate, dogfish, American plaice and lobster. And because our gear is lighter than current nets, it does less damage to the seabed. Bottom line, The Eliminator is good for business, because reducing our bycatch allows us to get closer to our total allowable haul of haddock. But the gear gives us other efficiencies too. Hauling in less unwanted catch cuts our sorting time on deck considerably, and the net design lets us do longer tows, so we spend less time hauling and setting. It’s a pretty good deal all the way around.
WWF: Is The Eliminator in use yet?
PR: It’s already being used on a test basis in some European Union fisheries – and with good results. Here in the U.S., we’re still waiting for official approval of use by government fisheries management. We were going to try it when we went to fish haddock in January, but we didn’t get the chance: Boats using the current separator trawl had already hit the total allowable limit of haddock catch to codfish bycatch, so the haddock fishery was closed.
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