Harnessing Solar Energy to Reduce Sea Turtle Bycatch

Abstract

Over the past decade, illuminating gillnets with LED lights or chemical lightsticks has emerged as a promising solution to reduce sea turtle bycatch while maintaining target fish catch across multiple ocean basins. However, LED lights require replaceable batteries, and chemical lightsticks only last 24 h, leading to recurring operational costs for fishers and concerns over battery and lightstick disposal. To overcome these challenges, we developed a light that (1) harnesses solar energy to illuminate gillnets; (2) flashes at a duty cycle optimized for power consumption under different fishing durations; and (3) is designed to function as a buoy, providing easy integration of the technology into existing fishing gear. Controlled fishery experiments in Mexico's Gulf of California revealed that solar-powered illuminated nets significantly reduced predicted mean sea turtle bycatch rates by 63% while maintaining target fish catch. These results suggest that fisheries bycatch can be mitigated by harnessing energy from the sun, representing a novel and renewable bycatch reduction technology with potential for global applicability.