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Support your local Fishermen during Covid-19

–  Buy fresh shellfish straight from the quayside, or get it delivered to your door! – #SourceLocal #EatLocal #SupportLocal   As a result of COVID-19 the UK’s fishermen and seafood industry are facing enormous challenges, with many local fishers no longer able to supply their catch to overseas markets or UK restaurants. However YOU can […]

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A message from SEA partner the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation

A message from SEA partner the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation (SCFF) in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic and repercussions of this to small-scale fishermen. “Can ALL Scottish Fishermen, especially those who rely on the live market, please email their MSP’s and MP’s asap and inform them of their predicament regarding the loss of market […]

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This is not the way we’re going to conserve whale populations

A couple of years old now but a great article from across the pond. I had the pleasure of working with Scott, Everett and Bob in Cape Cod a few years back, in fact on my first day with the team I got to witness first-hand how slick their operation is when a call came […]

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News from across the pond – 2020 Gear Innovation Summit

News this week from the 2020 Gear Innovation Summit in Halifax, Canada. Fishers, gear manufacturers, entanglement responders, environmental groups and government officials participated in a two-day workshop where discussions focused on ways to  reduce fishing gear interactions with marine mammals. “…..there’s a misconception that the fishing industry is resistant to changes aimed at protecting marine […]

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Alasdair Macleod, a life lived and lost at sea

Apologies for the silence on here in recent weeks folks, this is not because we have nothing to report, quite the opposite! As this phase of the SEA project comes to a close (April 2020 is our ‘official’ deadline) the project partners have been busy pulling together all of the data that has been collected […]

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Guest blog – ropeless technologies and virtual gear marking

This blog was written by Kim Sawicki, an American scientist currently living and working in Scotland on a Fulbright scholarship. Her goal is to advance the development of ropeless technology and help bring about its regular use in pot and trap fisheries around the world. Kim’s vision is to end whale entanglements while also preserving […]

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Using teamwork and technology to monitor Scottish seas

Following a very successful large whale disentanglement workshop in Ullapool in late October, a group of Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA) project partners completed a two-day drone operator training course. This training was delivered by Brian Taggart and Matt Pickett of the US-based Oceans Unmanned, a non-profit organisation founded to harness the power of technology to […]

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Creel fishermen, rescue teams and researchers team up to tackle entanglement

In the first workshop of its kind in Europe, creel fishermen and women from around Scotland gathered in the Highlands to tackle the problem of marine animal entanglement. Organised by the Scottish Entanglement Alliance (SEA) and funded by the University Innovation Fund through Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), 20 creel fishermen and women from the Clyde […]

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A double whammy of fatal entanglements this month

So far this month SEA project partners have already responded to three entanglement cases – one with a happy ending involving a humpback whale that was successfully freed from creel gear by SEA partners British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) with assistance from the local fishing community (see previous post). However the other two were […]

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Humpback whale successfully disentangled in Orkney

A specially trained group of volunteers from British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR, a SEA project partner) were mobilised to assist a humpback whale entangled in fishing gear in Orkney on Monday 2nd October. The report was received from a local fisherman who discovered the animal anchored in his fishing ropes and did absolutely the […]

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