Earlier this month, SFP hosted a second innovative gear library tour, following on the success of our September 2025 Innovative Gear Workshop and Tour in Boston, Massachusetts. This time, we visited a library on the West Coast of the US, teaming up with the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation (NMSF) on October 6 to offer a tour of the NMSF Innovative Gear Library in Santa Cruz, CA.
Once again, a diverse group of collaborators came together to address a shared challenge: supporting the pot and trap fishing industry while reducing entanglements of marine life in fishing gear. Building on the East Coast event, participants explored ways to protect whales, including humpback, gray, and blue whales, and other endangered, threatened, and protected (ETP) species, while also allowing fishing efforts to continue in crab and other pot and trap fisheries.
Entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes are the two main causes of death for whales. A recent NOAA report of 2025 data showed that about 79% (63 cases) of all confirmed live whale entanglement reports were observed off of four West Coast states – Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Washington – with 27.6% of these off the coast of California. As on the East Coast, this challenge has driven increased efforts to find solutions, such as on-demand (aka pop-up) fishing technologies.
Diverse perspectives come together
This month’s tour brought representatives of the seafood industry, harvesters, state agencies, and scientists together at the NMSF Innovative Gear Library. Participants reviewed innovative on-demand technologies, discussed the challenges of supporting responsibly harvested crab, particularly in the Dungeness crab fishery, and explored the significance of ETP species bycatch in pot and trap fisheries.
The tour was designed to offer participants with diverse perspectives an opportunity to exchange ideas, address barriers to adoption, and explore practical solutions to marine wildlife entanglement while supporting the market demand for valuable crab and other products.
The day began with an introduction by SFP, followed by an overview of fisheries regulations by representatives from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Greg Wells, manager of the NMSF Innovative Gear Library, then demonstrated on-demand, or pop-up, fishing gear and explained how these technologies can help reduce entanglement risks while supporting fishing operations.
Benefits of on-demand gear
Like other gear-lending libraries, the NMSF library provides harvesters with access to whale-safe fishing technologies at no cost. These programs enable fishers to trial emerging technologies and provide feedback that helps manufacturers and researchers further refine and improve the equipment.
In addition to helping reduce entanglement risks, on-demand systems can help prevent gear loss and theft by allowing fishers to track and locate their equipment without relying on traditional buoy lines. These systems may also reduce fuel consumption and shorten trips by enabling fishers to identify gear locations in advance and activate pop-up buoys when they are ready to retrieve their traps. Trap-tracking applications and smart buoy technologies can provide further benefits, including streamlined trip reporting and access to useful environmental data, such as seafloor temperatures.
Several technologies have already been approved and are being used successfully in designated closed fishing areas in California, along the U.S. East Coast, and in Canada. On-demand gear will also be permitted in Oregon beginning in 2027.
Connecting stakeholders
SFP’s continued work in this area has also focused on understanding the complexity of developing a reliable supply chain to bring seafood harvested with on-demand gear to the market, as well as continued education about technology and its potential benefits.
As part of our efforts to connect stakeholders with innovative technologies and foster collaboration across fisheries and regions, SFP will host a third gear library tour early next year, this time at the Canadian Wildlife Federation’s CanFish Gear Lending Library in May 2027. Reach out to our Protecting Ocean Wildlife team if you are interested in joining this trip.
As we saw during the East Coast workshop in Boston, some participants were unfamiliar with the availability and use of on-demand fishing gear. Tours and workshops like these remind us why bringing people together is so important. These events create opportunities to learn from one another, share experiences, ask questions, and build a better understanding of both the challenges and opportunities surrounding this complex issue. By fostering these connections and encouraging open dialogue, we can work together toward solutions that protect marine wildlife and ocean ecosystems while supporting the seafood industry and harvesters’ livelihoods.
The stocked shelves of the NMSF Innovative Gear Library
Tour participants learn about a wide variety of innovative gear
