Scientists from Fishtek Marine, a manufacturer of sustainable fishing gear, had a surprise discovery. Bright lights that they added to crab pots to catch more crabs instead attracted loads of scallops. The scallops swam into the traps to get to the lights.
Traditional scallop fishing involves dredging the bottom of the ocean, causing considerable marine floor damage. The new lights-in-crab-pot method would be a much lower-impact form of scallop fishing.
A Vimeo video of “scallop potting” can be viewed here.
The NPR story recording can be found here.
The scientists’ research paper can be found here.
Top image: Pexels.com
Image: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165783622001114
Discoveries like this seldom have a responsible or sustainable result. Next thing you know, underwater bait lights will be overused and the fish population will decline too quickly or will have a negative impact on some other species.