Mission Ocean and Waters project NETTAG+ shares positive results of the effectiveness of technological solutions for the fishing gear marking device. Learn more here!
Mission Ocean and Waters project, NETTAG+ has announced that after a first year of development, the new acoustic transponder system for locating lost gear has now undergone extensive testing in the North Sea. The team of Newcastle University and Succorfish Ltd have carried out two trials onboard the research vessel RV Princess Royal to assess the distance range, reliability and accuracy of the system to detect lost gear at sea, deploying transponders moored near the seabed to simulate lost gear.
First trial: detecting lost gear within a range of over 2km
The initial trial carried out an exhaustive range test on the transponder technology, with thousands of accurate range measurements obtained at regular intervals from directly above the transponder up to a maximum horizontal range of 2.7 km. This trial confirmed the technology’s ability to find lost gear over a wide search area.
Second trial: rapidly locating lost gear
The second trial exercised pre-production prototype transponders, surface location unit and positioning app, in mock operations to locate lost gear. The system proved able to pinpoint the location of two items of “gear”, from starting positions > 2km away, in a matter of minutes. This enabled the skipper of the vessel to quickly navigate to within meters of their true position. This trial also provided valuable feedback on the deployment of the surface unit and the operation of the app, guiding the design of the forthcoming commercial products.
These successful trials mark a significant milestone for the NETTAG+ project, highlighting the potential of this technology to effectively avoid the loss of fishing gear.
About NETTAG+
NETTAG+ is a Mission Ocean project funded by Horizon Europe aiming to prevent, avoid and mitigate the environmentally harmful impacts of fishing gears and their associated marine litter. To learn more about NETTAG+ solutions and results, visit the project’s website: https://nettagplus.eu/