Entangled Fishing Gear

Credit: Laura Slicer © WHOI

When the Pioneer 19 team recovered the Offshore Surface Mooring, it came with fishing gear entangled in the buoy tower. This is not an uncommon occurrence, but it can be detrimental to the mooring system. The fishing line sometimes gets wrapped around the wind turbines, which charge the batteries that power the instrumentation.  When this happens, not only do the fishers lose some of their gear, but the ability to supply continuous power to all of the instruments is degraded.