The SeaQualizer Gives Doomed Fish a Fighting Chance

This article appeared online via Wired on June 21, 2015. Read the original version here. It's got to be one of the worst ways to go: pulled to the surface against your will, changes in pressure attacking your body, only to be tossed away, no relief in site.

Fish inadvertently caught by sport and commercial fishers are known as “bycatch” and billions of them die every year. The ones affected by shifting pressure experience barotrauma and often due senseless deaths, but a new device wants to give them a fighting chance.

Hoping to find innovative solutions to the larger problems of bycatch, the World Wildlife Fund launched the International Smart Gear Competition in partnership with industry leaders, scientists, and fishermen. As sophisticated as the competition sounds, its solutions aren’t being made in a James Bond-esque lab: According to WWF, most are being pioneered by the people closest to the problem—fishermen themselves.

One of the most innovative tools to come out of the competition is the SeaQualizer. Created by two fishing buddies from South Florida, this hydrostatic descending device returns victims of bycatch to their native depths. Unlike fish caught in shallow lakes, many deep-water dwellers won’t survive if you simply toss them back, because as they ascend toward the surface, changes in pressure wreak havoc on their internal organs. By the time you reel them in, they’re experiencing barotrauma and will only pull through with assistance.

SQ 1 by Sportfishing Association of California

Fishermen historically helped bycatch recompress by venting, a process that involves puncturing the fish’s swim bladder to release the gas that built up during ascension. It’s as barbaric as it sounds and often leads to injury or death, but until around four years ago fishermen had no alternative—in some places, venting was even required by law.

Jeffrey Liedermen and Patrick Brown, the duo behind the SeaQualizer, had heard about an interesting alternative: descending devices that lower fish to appropriate depths—no stabbing required. But early descenders lacked precision. Some were crates fishermen manually lowered to the seafloor; others required the user to constantly tug on the line. Liedermen and Brown saw an opportunity and took to Brown’s parents’ garage to build a solution.

It only took them eight months. “[The SeaQualizer is] unique because of its ability to be utilized in all conditions and on almost all sizes of fish,” the team says. Fishermen simply set a dial to the desired depth before clipping one end of the device to the fish’s jaws and the other to a weighted fishing line. Everything goes into the water, and when the SeaQualizer reaches the programmed depth, its clip opens, allowing the fish to swim away.

The SeaQualizer got its start on red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico, but later expanded to help rockfish off the California coast and lake-dwelling stripers in the South. It now comes in three different models, including a Deep Water version that saves fish living up to 600 feet beneath the ocean’s surface.

The product became so popular, the Sportfishing Association of California teamed up with the WWF to put one on every member’s boat. Of course, these efforts aren’t solely motivated by goodwill for bottom-dwellers: One creature’s vulnerability can impact an entire ecosystem and industry—and a fish called the cowcod was doing just that. In 2000, NOAA declared the species overfished; the organization also said it wasn’t eligible for catch and release because of deaths caused by barotrauma. To help cowcod rebound, NOAA prohibited deep-sea bottom-fishing along massive stretches of the California coastline. Eventually, such protections will bolster fish populations and the industries that depend on them, but the short game means fishers suffer economic losses. And in the case of conserving cowcod, some of the restricted areas are home to other species that could safely be harvested.

But the SeaQualizer might have created a happy compromise between fish and fishermen. While some restrictions remain, NOAA recently reopened portions of the Pacific after testing the efficacy of descending devices in partnership with the Sportfishing Association of California and WWF. The groups caught and released fish using the SeaQualizer after fitting them with acoustic transmitters that broadcast the animal’s depth and activity level. Prior research showed that descending devices kept fish alive for the short-term, but these recent trials proved that, when released with the SeaQualizer, cowcod and several other species survive at least 80 percent of the time.

The real success “was the collaboration between industry, government, and WWF to demonstrate and broadcast the SeaQualizer’s benefits,” says WWF’s Mike Osmond. “That’s the power of the Smart Gear competition—its ability to bring people together to solve the problem of bycatch.”