Marine Conservation - Technology and Halfway Technology

Technology and Halfway Technology

Marine conservation technologies are devices used to protect endangered and threatened marine organisms and/or habitat. Marine conservation technologies are innovative and revolutionary because they reduce bycatch, increase the survivorship and health of marine life and habitat, and benefit fishermen who depend on the resources for profit. Examples of technologies include marine protected areas (MPAs), turtle excluder devices (TEDs), and radio-frequency identification (RFID). Commercial practicality plays in important role in the success of marine conservation because it is necessary to cater to the needs of fishermen while also protecting marine life.

Turtle excluder devices for example (TEDs) remove a major threat to turtles in their marine environment. Many sea turtles are accidentally captured, injured or killed by fishing. In response to this threat the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)worked with the shrimp trawling industry to create the TEDs devices. By working with the industry they insured the commercial viability of the devices. Basically, a TED is a series of bars that is placed at the top or bottom of a trawl net, fitting the bars into the "neck" of the shrimp trawl and acting as a filter to ensure that only small animals may pass through. The shrimp will be caught but larger animals such as marine turtles that become caught by the trawler will be rejected by the filter function of the bars.

Similarly, halfway technologies work to increase the population of marine organisms, however, it does so without behavioral changes and "addresses the symptoms but not the cause of the declines". Examples of halfway technologies would include hatcheries and fish ladders.