Peoject Update: July 2009

So far we have completed ten fishing trips with either control or experimental sets, the latter using the pingers (acoustic alarms to deter small cetaceans) attached to the fishing net. We have data for 27 experimental and 40 control sets.

We lost two pingers (Netmark 1000) during the first sets and they were replaced with another two immediately. Another pinger cracked on the third trip and this was also replaced. However, we are learning a lot from these incidents about the process of deployment from artisanal fishing gear and ideas to make the process more fluid and less painful for the fishermen.

During the next few months we expect to maintain the frequency of fishing trips participating in this experiment. Also we just updated the website of www.prodelphinus.org with links to the Rufford website for the project.