Renewable net lights reduce waste, repel sea turtles

Each night, a constellation of glowing nets drifts through the dark seas, illuminated by glow sticks and LED lights in a growing effort to prevent sea turtles from being caught in coastal driftnet fisheries. However, the effort comes with waste. LED lights require replaceable batteries, and glow sticks only last 24 hours. Conservationists have raised concerns over the sustainability of the practice as well as the rising costs fishers face with this single-use method, as dead batteries and burned-out plastic glow sticks pile up with every trip to sea. Responding to the concerns, a team of researchers designed a solar-powered buoy light that integrates directly into standard fishing gear, harnessing sunlight during the day and then flashing through the night. When tested at sea, the solar-powered flashing nets cut sea turtle bycatch by 63% without significantly impacting the fishers’ haul. The flashing solar lights performed the same as, and sometimes better than, the other light-based methods tested over the past decade. This innovation offers a potential win-win, reducing the impact on sea turtles while providing fishers with a practical, low-waste alternative.

Read more in Conservation Letters.