Solar-Powered, Light-Up Fishing Nets Are Saving Sea Turtles: 'Reduces Entanglement By 63%'

Solar-Powered, Light-Up Fishing Nets Are Saving Sea Turtles: 'Reduces Entanglement By 63%'

Solar-Powered, Light-Up Fishing Nets Are Saving Sea Turtles: 'Reduces Entanglement By 63%' With sea turtles at risk of extinction — and entanglement in fishing gear a primary threat, along with climate change and habitat loss — conservation efforts have been put in place to reduce their risk of entanglement.  In areas like coastal North Carolina, where the Endangered Species Act has severely restricted commercial fishing, local fishermen took a major hit. “It shut down the gillnetting here and there was a lot of people dependent on that,” a fourth-generation commercial fisherman, Eddie Willis, told Arizona State University.  “It put a lot of people out of work. A lot of people.” Eddie Willis (right) discusses fishing nets with the ASU Senko Lab team. Photo by Samantha Chow/Arizona State University This, then, led to a larger culture of distrust between those trying to protect biodiversity and fishing communities. But researchers at Arizona State University’s Senko Lab are working to …