The Banana Pinger Trial

South West Marine Ecosystems
conference
Copyright:
April 2014
Ruth Williams, Cornwall Wildlife
Trust
The Future is bright,

the future is yellow!
The Banana Pinger Trial.
(01872) 273939
www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk
Protecting Cornwalls wildlife for the future
Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings

Network
Investigating deaths of marine mammals
Photo Paul Semmens
(01872) 273939
Causes of death 1990-2011

(based on necropsies)
Necropsy data courtesy of CSIP
(01872) 273939
CWT pinger trials

- Prevent accidental entanglement of cetaceans
in inshore fishing nets
(01872) 273939
The Aquamark Pinger

Results showed the devices to be effective
48% reduction in harbor porpoise activity
The last trial highlighted some serious concerns, relating to battery life and cost of
the pingers tested.
(01872) 273939
The Pinger Project journal article

- JCRM 12-1 pp 85-90
(01872) 273939
Fishtek Ltd., based in Devon, have developed the Banana pinger as a direct result of
previous work in the Cornish fishery.
The unit performs in the same acoustic range as the Aquamark, but addresses key issues of
cost, ease of use and monitoring, and battery life.
Specifically designed to meet the EU regulations on sound frequency and power.
The Banana Pinger

(01872) 273939
This study of the Banana Pinger

consisted of two investigations:
Cycling pinger trial to investigate
behavioural effects of the Banana
Pinger on porpoise and dolphins, such
as possible long-term displacement
and the rate and degree of
habituation of porpoises to a pinger.
Use in a fishery to test the
effectiveness of this device at
deterring cetaceans from inshore set
nets and assess their practicality in a
normal commercial fishery setting.
(01872) 273939
Protecting Cornwalls wildlife
the futureWildlife Trust
Photofor
Cornwall
C-POD
Acoustic
monitoring systems
Level of by-catch is too low
to statistically prove the
effectiveness of pingers
over a short time period
using actual bycatch rates.
CPoDs give us the ability
to infer changes in
behaviour due to pingers by
recording all acoustic
activities.
(01872) 273939
Cycling pinger deployment
Single modified pinger 21 hour cycle.

Long term fixed mooring in 40 m of water.
With associated C-POD.
Additional C -POD 150 m away to record the
activity of dolphins without interference of the
pinger.
(01872) 273939
Cycling pinger trial Results

- Black line when pinger is on. Purple colouration is porpoise clicks.
- Effect of pinger click detections falling to 27% when pinger ON
(01872) 273939
Cycling pinger trial Results

Habituation - There is variation, but no evidence of
any diminishing trend in pinger effect over the 8
months.
Effect on porpoise Reduces activity to 27% when
pinger is ON.
Effect on dolphins Reduces activity to 75% when
pinger is ON.
150m from pinger
ON
OFF
hours
1547
1420
clicks
7591
9341
Clicks/m
4.9
6.6
Detections falls to:
ON/OFF
75%
(01872) 273939
Real time fishery results

Effectiveness of
device at
deterring
cetaceans
A total of 160.6
soak days of nets
with and without
pingers were
recorded.
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Type of fishery tangle netting
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Real time fishery deployment method

Acoustic
monitoring device
(CPoD)
Pingers spaced at 200m intervals

on lead line.
(01872) 273939
There was a gap in fishing activity due to bad weather

in November, December and January 2013, but results
show a lower number of porpoise clicks from nets with
pingers present than from nets without pingers.
(01872) 273939
Table below shows an average reduction of porpoise click detections to 18%

on pingered nets compared to non-pingered nets.
No bycatch of cetacean species was recorded in either the pingered or
control nets.
Skipper
Hours
N of clicks P
N of clicks
NP
Vessel 1
2204
6061
31310
19%
Vessel 2
932
185
2616
7%
Vessel 3
167
11
508
2%
Vessel 4
44
64
166
39%
ALL
3347
6321
34600
18%
P/NP ratio
(01872) 273939
Practicality of pinger
Handling good. One button
holing, none after adjustment
of practices.
Stay on nets no hazard.
Problem with some net
rigging systems - sliding.
Problem with popping out of
casing under tension.
Good battery life.
LED light pros and cons.
Effect on seals.
Worries on cost.
Bycatch not seen as problem.
(01872) 273939
Conclusions
Banana Pinger is suitable for deployment in an
inshore set net fishery and shows a strong pinger
effect that can be expected to translate into a greatly
reduced risk of bycatch.
It also gives confidence that habituation is not a
problem.
There is also strong evidence of a response by
dolphins to the Banana Pinger, displayed in the cycling
pinger trials.
(01872) 273939
CWT Recommendations
That a wider trial of Banana Pingers should be promoted to

all under-12m vessels using gill nets within Cornwalls territorial
waters (0-12 nm) as a voluntary method to reduce cetacean
bycatch.
Banana Pinger trials in other fishing areas in the UK.
Effort into raising consumer and public awareness of

vessels using pingers as being dolphin friendly and promote
these vessels as using sustainable practices.
Further work to assess the durability and suitability of the

Banana Pinger as bycatch mitigation device on over-12m
vessels is undertaken.
(01872) 273939
Ruth Williams
Marine Conservation Manager
ruth.williams@ cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk
Abby Crosby
Marine Conservation Officer
abby.crosby@cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk
Thank you for your attention

PANACHE
Towards a common, coherent and efficient response to cross-border challenges

Vers une rponse commune, cohrente et efficace aux dfis transfrontaliers
(01872) 273939

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The Banana Pinger Trial

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South West Marine Ecosystems

The Future is bright,

Protecting Cornwalls wildlife for the future

Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings

Photo Paul Semmens

Causes of death 1990-2011

Necropsy data courtesy of CSIP

CWT pinger trials

The Aquamark Pinger

The Pinger Project journal article

Specifically designed to meet the EU regulations on sound frequency and power.

The Banana Pinger

This study of the Banana Pinger

Cycling pinger deployment

Single modified pinger 21 hour cycle.

Cycling pinger trial Results

Cycling pinger trial Results

Detections falls to:

Real time fishery results

Type of fishery tangle netting

Real time fishery deployment method

Pingers spaced at 200m intervals

There was a gap in fishing activity due to bad weather

Table below shows an average reduction of porpoise click detections to 18%

That a wider trial of Banana Pingers should be promoted to

Banana Pinger trials in other fishing areas in the UK.

Effort into raising consumer and public awareness of

Further work to assess the durability and suitability of the

Thank you for your attention

Towards a common, coherent and efficient response to cross-border challenges

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