Research: green LED bulbs can reduce the chance of catching other species by mistake.

A multinational research team led by Dr. Jeffrey Mangel, UK's University of Ireland, has released the latest research report. It points out that if the LED bulbs used in green energy batteries are used in fishing nets, the chances that the seabirds and marine organisms will be entangled by fishing nets will be reduced by more than 85%.

The research team conducted experiments in the Sechura Bay waters of northern Peru, and began casting nets from the evening until the next morning. The 114 nets were fixed in the sea and each group had two fishing nets. One of them was equipped with a LED light bulb every 10 meters along the fishing net floating rope, and the other one was not equipped with LED bulbs as a control group. It was found that the fishing net with LED bulbs would be significantly reduced if compared with uninstalled fishing nets. South American cormorants are endemic to the mainland, diving into the water to catch fish, but are often trapped in fishing nets.

The study, published in the Journal of open society of the Royal Society, said Dr Mangel said the research showed that humans could make fishermen reduce the risk of mistakenly catching other conservation species at low cost.

Previous research teams have done similar experiments. At that time, they also divided the fishing net into an experimental group equipped with a green LED light bulb and a control group without LED bulbs. The results showed that the probability of being caught by the turtles was reduced by 64%, and the catch was not affected. The research team is now actively expanding its cooperation with fishermen in Peru to test whether different colors of light can achieve the same effect for different conservation animals.

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