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Off the hook: electrical device keeps sharks away from fishing lines

Such interventions could greatly reduce accidental catches of threatened species.
A blue shark with a pair of pilot fish swimming just under the surface of the water

The number of blue sharks (Prionace glauca) in fishery by-catches was cut by 91% thanks to a device that uses electrical signals to deter the creatures. Credit: Nick Hawkins/Nature Picture Library

More than 30% of shark and ray species are edging towards extinction, mainly because they are unintentionally caught by fishers targeting tuna and other commercially valuable species. A new device might help to keep some of these threatened species away from fishing hooks.

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Nature 612, 10 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03776-4

References

  1. Doherty, P. D. et al. Curr. Biol. 32, R1260–R1261 (2022).

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