Iluminar el Mar is a project co-lead by non profit organizations The Leatherback Project and Mare Nostrum Foundation to work WITH fishers to implement a long term solution for bycatch reduction.

Bycatch, the unintentional capture of non-target species during fishing operations, poses one of the most significant threats to marine biodiversity, driving population declines of endangered sea turtles, sharks, rays, dolphins, and whales in the East Pacific. In Ecuador, and around the world, fishing provides livelihoods for multitudes of families. Reducing the bycatch pressure on endangered populations will not only protect these species from continued decline, but also help return balance to the ecosystems fishers rely on for their livelihoods.

As the Ecuadorian Artisanal Gillnet fishing sector hosts the highest recorded bycatch rates in the South Pacific, if small, inexpensive and pilot tested LED lights are deployed in at least 25 percent of the fishery through outreach, community relationships, and market incentives, fisheries bycatch will decrease significantly in the East Pacific. These lights work by taking advantage of the differences in visual acuity between target bony fish species like tuna, and non target species like turtles, sharks, and dolphins: illuminating the net for these threatened species to avoid swimming into while not negatively impacting the fishers target catch.

This will allow for the recovery of threatened and endangered marine species populations, a resulting increase in these species’ ability to fulfill their ecosystem services, an increase in the health of coastal fisheries resources, and an enhancement of the livelihoods and lives of local fishing communities. Using the Eastern Pacific leatherback sea turtle as a sentinel species, Iluminar el Mar seeks to prevent the extinction of this population while also protecting threatened and endangered sea turtle, shark, ray, dolphin and whale species as well as empower and improve the livelihoods of the marginalized artisanal fishers along coastal Ecuador.

Our specific objectives to do this are to engage hundreds of fishermen, government representatives, and sustainable food cooperatives to develop a market incentives model using the LED light technological innovation, supported by a coalition of artisanal fishers implementing sustainable fishing practices.

 We have already begun this work in our pilot fishing port of Jaramijó, where we have over 30 fishers who receive training on sustainable fishing practices, participate in initiative co-development workshops, and are currently participating in strategic fishing trials with LED lights during their regular fishing practices. During our most recent survey, 98% of these fishers have committed to work alongside us as we expand outreach across coastal Ecuador.