“Responsible Fisheries Innovation Award Goes to TAST: Targeted Acoustic Startle Technology”
St Andrews, Scotland, UK – On Tuesday 19 November, 2024, GenusWave, a leader in human-wildlife conflict mitigation technology, was recognized for their innovative efforts in the seafood industry. The company was awarded the prestigious Responsible Seafood Innovation Award in the Fisheries category by the Global Seafood Alliance.
The award was presented at the Responsible Seafood Summit on October 22, 2024, in recognition of GenusWave’s Targeted Acoustic Startle Technology (TAST). This technology, originally developed at the University of St. Andrews, effectively reduces interactions between marine mammals and fishing operations.
According to Götz and Janik (2015; 2016), TAST utilizes brief acoustic signals to trigger a startle reflex in specific marine mammal taxon, effectively keeping them away from conflicts with human objectives. The benefits of TAST have been extensively documented through eight peer-reviewed studies, showcasing its potential to address longstanding challenges in the seafood industry.
These challenges include reducing bycatch and marine mammal interactions, increasing catch rates and fishing time, decreasing fish mortalities and predator-induced stress in aquaculture operations, and significantly decreasing noise pollution compared to traditional acoustic deterrents. TAST also offers taxon-specific targeting, minimizing its impact on non-target marine life.
Field tests have demonstrated TAST’s effectiveness, leading to significant reductions in seal predation on salmon farms in Scotland (Götz & Janik, 2015), a decrease in losses to grey seals during mackerel fishing operations in the UK (MMO, 2020; Whyte et al., 2021), and a reduction in predation events by Steller sea lions on a salmon troll fishery in Alaska (Jemison et al., work in progress). TAST has also shown promise in reducing orca activity around a herring purse seine fishery in Norway (Langstein, 2023), and decreasing the overall foraging success of individual seals predating on salmon in Washington State, USA (McKeegan et al., 2024). Furthermore, TAST has been proven to consistently be effective without causing habituation by target species (Götz & Janik, 2016).
Those who have seen these results first-hand are excited about the possibilities that TAST offers. David Whyte, the Former Chair of the Rosehearty Harbour and Inshore Fisherman’s Association (RHIFA), spoke about the necessity of this technology for the future of the industry. He stated, “Seal interference and predation, within our summer mackerel fishery, is increasing year on year and is now at a level where it is hampering fishing efforts to such a scale that a number of skippers no longer participate in the fishery, or are seriously considering withdrawing. The work we did with Thomas Goetz (et al) has given us hope that a version of TAST technology can make a significant difference within our fishery, without harming marine life. Genuswave technology has been our only chink of light in an ever-darkening situation. We see TAST as potentially the only suitable means of minimizing the impact seals are having on our livelihoods.”
Suzannah Walmsley, an Associate at ABPmer, described her experience with TAST, emphasizing its potential to reduce interactions between seals and fisheries. She stated, “Interactions between seals and fisheries harm fishers’ ability to earn a livelihood, as well as affecting individual seals; the GenusWave TAST offers real promise for helping to reduce such interactions. Having tested TAST in an inshore mackerel gillnet fishery and inshore line fishery, we have seen positive effects, with reductions in depredation by seals.”
Sam Cox, a senior postdoctoral researcher at the University College Cork, highlighted the benefits of TAST’s target specificity. He stated, “We’ve been working with GenusWave over the past couple of years, testing TAST devices for use in static-net fisheries suffering from high levels of depredation. Many challenges exist in developing instrumentation that can be deployed at sea in rough conditions for long periods of time. The engineers at GenusWave have worked closely with us, taking onboard feedback to improve and tailor the design of their units for our use, and we only have positive things to say of our experience working with them. TAST technology is particularly interesting for our application as our fishery operates in an area frequented by many cetacean species, and minimizing disturbance to non-target species of high priority. TAST aims to achieve this by using short exposure times coupled to a targeted frequency band. Initial results from our trials show no difference in cetacean presence (common dolphins) around control and test nets. We look forward to continuing our work with GenusWave in the future.”
Kim Raum-Suryan, a Marine Mammal Specialist in the Protected Resources Division (Alaska Region)