. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. SEA SCIENCE. Be Jotdenose dolphins have been included in seafarer legends for centuries, but today's fishing captains are worried more about the charismatic creatures getting caught up in nets than folklore. Entanglement is a major issue for the mid-Atlantic coastal gill net fishery, which is comprised of several smaller, seasonal fisheries. The fishery ranks among the highest in the Western North Atlantic for entanglement-related dolphin deaths. From New Jersey to North Caro- lina, an estimated 210 bottle
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. SEA SCIENCE. Be Jotdenose dolphins have been included in seafarer legends for centuries, but today's fishing captains are worried more about the charismatic creatures getting caught up in nets than folklore. Entanglement is a major issue for the mid-Atlantic coastal gill net fishery, which is comprised of several smaller, seasonal fisheries. The fishery ranks among the highest in the Western North Atlantic for entanglement-related dolphin deaths. From New Jersey to North Caro- lina, an estimated 210 bottlenose dolphins were killed between 1992 and 2001, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- tion's (NOAA) most recent stock assessment. Dolphins may get tangled while eating fish from nets, a behavior known as depredation. But it is also possible they run into nets accidentally, says Andrew Read, a Duke University marine scientist who studies bottlenose dolphin behavior. Either way, it's a lose-lose situation — and not just for dolphins. "Fishermen don't want to experience depredation because it costs money," says Read. "And, fishermen don't want to catch dolphins. It's a big regulatory headache for ; Last summer, Read and Hatteras fisherman Dave Swanner received a grant from the Fishery Resource Grant (FRG) program to study whether acoustic deterrent devices called "Save Waves" effectively keep dolphins away from gill nets. The FRG program is funded by the North Carolina General Assembly and administered by North Carolina Sea Grant. Used widely in Mediterranean fisheries, Save Waves produce random pulses of sound at the same level of intensity a dolphin uses to echolocate, a physiological process that involves emitting sound waves to locate distant objects, such as prey. Save Waves are anecdotal successes in Europe, but there has been very little scientific study to assess their effectiveness, says Read. If such devi
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