Research: green light LED bulbs can reduce the probability of catching other conservation species

A multinational research team, led by Dr. Jeffrey Mangel, UK University of IRT, published the latest research report, pointing out that if the LED bulbs used with green batteries were used on fishing nets, the chance of seabirds and marine organisms to be entangled in fishing nets would be reduced by more than 85%.

The research team conducted experiments in the Sechura Bay sea area of northern Peru. From the evening to the net until the next morning, the 114 sets of fishing nets were fixed in the sea, with two nets in each group. One was installed a LED bulb every 10 meters along the fish net, and the other did not have a LED light bulb as the control group. The results showed that the probability of "South American cormorants" was greatly reduced by the fishing nets equipped with LED bulbs, compared with the uninstalled nets. South American cormorants are endemic species that dive into the water and catch fish, but they are often trapped in a fishing net.

The study, published in the Journal of the Royal Society's open science, says the findings suggest that humans can make fishermen work at a low cost at the same time and reduce the chance of mistaken other conservation species.

Previous research teams have done similar experiments, when they also divided fishing nets into experimental groups that set out green LED bulbs and a control group without LED bulbs. The results showed that the sea turtles were caught 64% less and did not affect the catch. The research team is now actively expanding its cooperation with the Peru fishermen, trying to test the effects of different colors of light on different conservation animals.

For more information on LED, click on the LED network or pay attention to the WeChat public account (cnledw2013).