A Norway-based company is bringing a fishing device to Nova Scotia that it says will reduce the amount of lost fishing gear in the water.
ResQunit CEO Helge Tretto Olsen says its flotation device that attaches to gear such as lobster traps and crab pots has features that will allow for owners to find them.
“After a certain amount of days there is a cotton twine that dissolves and the flotation device floats to the surface,” says Olsen.
The twine on the device is biodegradable and after 90 days it disintegrates, which allows for the device to rise to the surface and for any marine life to escape.
In a press release, ResQunit, which now has an office in Dartmouth, NS., says that the fisherman’s name and number will be located on the device and will be registered with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
The head of the new Canadian branch of ResQunit, Erik Nobbe, says that fishermen will be able to use this device as a way to protect their investment in gear.
Nobbe says that they hope the device will help reduce the amount of so-called ‘ghost gear’ — gear that cannot be retrieved — from impacting the environment.
According to a press release by the company, the device is already being widely used by the fishing industry in Norway.
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