Bycatch is becoming a major problem in nowadays fisheries industry. It is clear that more sustainable fishing needs to be developed and such important issues to be fixed. The Thünen institute plays an important role in finding solutions to such problems by developing tools and technologies improving the fishing industry. One of these projects in the Pearl Net project. In order to cope with the increasing bycatch issue of small cetaceans in the Baltic Sea a new fishing net is being designed. Harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) are one of the most abundant cetacean in the Baltic Sea and is unfortunately one of the most bycatched by fishing nets. As they are too thin, the nets cannot be detected by the porpoises echolocation. To palliate this problem, acrylic pearls are being glued onto a net so that the clicks from the small cetaceans can be reflected and the porpoises can detect it as an obstacle.

My role in this project was to build this new net and implement it on our field site at the start of the experimentation period.