PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Good news regarding Bryde's whales came to light at the Plett Ocean Festival, held at the Beacon Island resort at the weekend.
These whales have been prone to getting entangled in ropes used in the octopus fishing industry, but thanks to the efforts of Plett marine mammal scientist Dr Gwenith Penry, there is hope for a better future.
Penry's research and consultations with the octopus fishing industry contributed to a situation where conflict between biodiversity and economically driven ocean industries was resolved amicably.
"There needs to be a balance," said Penry, who is a research associate of Nelson Mandela University.
Bryde's whale was named after Johan Bryde (pronounced Broode), who was the Norwegian consul to South Africa when the species was discovered.
There were 10 fatalities before 2019, when new regulations for the octopus industry were introduced by the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, Barbara Creecy.
This led to a change in the design of the gear which is bottom-mounted, not mid-ocean level.
The octopus fishing industry was operating in False Bay, Mossel Bay and Plettenberg Bay.
It started with Penry's research that used suction cup tags placed on Bryde's whales - not an easy operation as these whales are fast swimmers. The tags revealed previously unknown behaviour and showed that floating ground-lines were entanglement hazards for Bryde's whales.
"This species-specific data guided gear modification over temporal closures," said Penry. The new regulations stipulated that gear modification had to include sinking ground-lines and release switches on buoy lines.
"Since the introduction of the new regulations there have been no entanglements. However, only one permit holder [for catching octopus] has re-deployed gear, most probably because of the very high costs involved in changing and modifying it," said Penry.
"This is a big win for conservation and for future management of large-whale entanglement - a global issue."
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