Sinking rope trial aims to reduce whale entanglements off Scotland
This post is greater than 6 months old - links may be broken or out of date. Proceed with caution!
By Euan Paterson, SAMS communications and media manager
For a creel fisherman, it’s a routine part of the job: hauling a fleet of creels to collect a catch of crab or langoustine. The last thing they expect to find is a whale tangled in their ropes.
But finding an entangled whale is the distressing situation which some fishermen face when working off Scotland’s coastline.
It is estimated that six humpback whales and 30 minke whales become entangled in creel fishing gear each year. If whales become entangled they often cannot escape, which can lead to injury and death. Indeed, entanglement may be the largest identified cause of death due to human activity for minke and humpback whales in Scottish waters.
The Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA) is looking to change that. The project has brought together the fishing industry, government, academia, and NGOs to identify the main causes of entanglement and to come up with solutions.
The project identified that a high proportion of entangled whales had become caught in the groundline, the rope that links creels together on the seabed. As groundline is usually made from rope which floats, it can form arches in the water between creels in which whales can get caught by their mouths, flippers or tails.
This key finding led to a trial of sinking groundline that lies on the seabed, and therefore does not pose an entanglement risk. The trial was about finding out whether sinking rope would also be practical for fishermen. It was highly collaborative, with the fishermen involved at the centre of the work.
Following this successful trial in the area around Skye on Scotland’s west coast, and a grant from Marine Fund Scotland, SEA began a series of workshops with fishermen around the coast of Scotland to let them know about the trials, and seek their views on how any future implementation of sinking rope in Scotland might look. Through January and February 2025, meetings were held in Arbroath, Mull, Troon, Shetland, Orkney, Benbecula, Harris, Ullapool, Fraserburgh. More than 60 people attended the workshops – mainly creel fishermen.
Susannah Calderan, an honorary research fellow at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Oban, which is a SEA partner, said: “The workshops generated great discussions, with most fishermen right behind the need to get involved and shape the process going forwards. The attitude from the industry to what we’re trying to achieve is very positive. There is a broad consensus that something needs to be done, and it is best if they take the lead.”
Following the workshops 45 fishermen requested to trial the sinking rope for themselves; the rope was delivered by members of the SEA team to all coastal locations where workshops had been held, bringing the number of boats trialling sinking rope to 60.
The next steps for the SEA project involve developing a socio-economic report on options for how sinking rope might be introduced and financed in a way that is fair to fishermen. This report will then be taken back to areas previously visited. The project will gauge fishermen's views on the various options, with a view to providing a suite of recommendations to the Scottish Government.
The Scottish Entanglement Alliance is a partnership the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation, NatureScot, the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme, Scottish Association for Marine Science, British Divers Marine Life Rescue, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust.
www.sams.ac.uk https://scottishentanglement.org/