An estimated 100,000 fishers have issues of ‘depredation’ where marine mammals ‘steal’ fish caught in nets, causing damage to the gear and poor catches. The fishing industry is in urgent need of mitigation measures that can reduce the frequency and severity of interactions.
Depredation by dolphins, false killer whales, orcas and sperm whales appears to be growing in frequency, geographic extent and severity and is responsible for substantial economic losses. It also leads to extreme measures and fishermen using guns and explosives to deter animals.
Our Anti Depredation Pinger (ADP) is similar to the deterrent (banana) pinger, but it has a much louder output and different frequency range because it is designed to reduce the losses experienced by fishers due to the depredation of fish in set nets.
In comparison to studies looking at effectiveness of acoustic deterrents, there is a much less comprehensive set of research for anti-depredation devices. One of the most significant studies using Fishtek Marine’s Anti-Depredation Pinger took place around the Aeolian archipelago in Italy, where the use of devices in set nets reduced dolphin depredation by between 86% and 100%.
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Paper |
Location | Product/model used | Effect | Species | Gear Type |
| Acoustic deterrent devices as mitigation tool to prevent dolphin-fishery interactions in the Aeolian Archipelago (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy). (Chiara et al., 2021) | Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy | Fishtek’s 40kHz ADD | 100% reduction in dolphin depredation
86% reduction in dolphin depredation |
Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) & striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba)
Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) & striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba) |
Gillnet Trammel net |