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World’s ugliest lawn winner says she leaves watering to Mother Nature

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Friday, January 10, 2025

A sun-scorched patch of lawn near Christchurch, in New Zealand, has been crowned the ugliest lawn in the world.Now in its second year, the World’s Ugliest Lawn competition rewards lawn owners for not watering their parched yellow grass and patchy flowerbeds.The winning lawn in the settlement of Birdlings Flat belongs to Leisa Elliott, and is kept closely cropped by harsh coastal winds and little rainfall.“I live in a small coastal community,” Elliott said. “Our drinking water is pumped from a well in nearby Kaitorete Spit. In my mind, drinking water is drinking water, not watering-the-lawn water.”Leisa Elliott’s winning lawn is in Birdlings Flat in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. Photograph: Leisa ElliotThe contest began in the Swedish municipality of Gotland as a stunt to promote water conservation on the island. An irrigation ban in 2022 due to water shortages led to a competition between residents, which quickly gained global recognition.Elliott said: “I have aimed at creating a garden that primarily looks after itself, making its own natural rhythm.” Bushes of stout, verdant cacti surround the lawn, and are perfectly suited to the hot weather.“Mother Nature does the watering here,” she said. “When the rain comes, the transformation is stunning. An oasis after a desert is a sight to behold.”Wildlife is left to thrive undisturbed, often congregating by Elliott’s pond. “Many varieties of birds drink and bathe in it. Bellbirds, fantails, silver eyes, different types of finches, blackbirds, starlings. The list goes on. Bees and geckos also call this place home.”Elliott found out about the competition in February through a morning breakfast show. “We were experiencing above-normal summer temperatures and my lawn sure fitted the competition bill.”The jury, composed of Gotland residents, voted unanimously for Elliott’s lawn after an hour-long deliberation. “Her lawn may not win beauty contests, but it wins hearts for its message of sustainability and adaptability,” they said. “The ground, parched and textured by the elements, is dotted with natural, weather-carved indentations and adorned with the muted colours of a landscape that thrives without human interference.”skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionMimmi Gibson, the brand director at tourism agency Region Gotland, who helps organise the contest, said competition for the title was fierce. “I mean, they’re all so bad,” she said. “They’re so terrible.”Gibson said she hoped the annual contest would continue to provide people with optimism and ideas for small, meaningful actions they can take during the climate crisis. In Gotland, the contest and other initiatives have reduced water consumption by 5% to 7% each year since 2022.“We all have to channel this anxiety about environmental issues and the challenges we’re facing as a global population,” Gison said. “And this is one way to do that, not by making people feel bad but making them feel good.“At first you stand and you laugh and it’s like: ‘God, what is this?” Then you start thinking. It’s not just a fun thing, it’s actually saving water. I think people like that.”

New Zealand garden takes first prize in global competition designed to promote water conservationA sun-scorched patch of lawn near Christchurch, in New Zealand, has been crowned the ugliest lawn in the world.Now in its second year, the World’s Ugliest Lawn competition rewards lawn owners for not watering their parched yellow grass and patchy flowerbeds. Continue reading...

A sun-scorched patch of lawn near Christchurch, in New Zealand, has been crowned the ugliest lawn in the world.

Now in its second year, the World’s Ugliest Lawn competition rewards lawn owners for not watering their parched yellow grass and patchy flowerbeds.

The winning lawn in the settlement of Birdlings Flat belongs to Leisa Elliott, and is kept closely cropped by harsh coastal winds and little rainfall.

“I live in a small coastal community,” Elliott said. “Our drinking water is pumped from a well in nearby Kaitorete Spit. In my mind, drinking water is drinking water, not watering-the-lawn water.”

Leisa Elliott’s winning lawn is in Birdlings Flat in the Canterbury region of New Zealand. Photograph: Leisa Elliot

The contest began in the Swedish municipality of Gotland as a stunt to promote water conservation on the island. An irrigation ban in 2022 due to water shortages led to a competition between residents, which quickly gained global recognition.

Elliott said: “I have aimed at creating a garden that primarily looks after itself, making its own natural rhythm.” Bushes of stout, verdant cacti surround the lawn, and are perfectly suited to the hot weather.

“Mother Nature does the watering here,” she said. “When the rain comes, the transformation is stunning. An oasis after a desert is a sight to behold.”

Wildlife is left to thrive undisturbed, often congregating by Elliott’s pond. “Many varieties of birds drink and bathe in it. Bellbirds, fantails, silver eyes, different types of finches, blackbirds, starlings. The list goes on. Bees and geckos also call this place home.”

Elliott found out about the competition in February through a morning breakfast show. “We were experiencing above-normal summer temperatures and my lawn sure fitted the competition bill.”

The jury, composed of Gotland residents, voted unanimously for Elliott’s lawn after an hour-long deliberation. “Her lawn may not win beauty contests, but it wins hearts for its message of sustainability and adaptability,” they said. “The ground, parched and textured by the elements, is dotted with natural, weather-carved indentations and adorned with the muted colours of a landscape that thrives without human interference.”

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Mimmi Gibson, the brand director at tourism agency Region Gotland, who helps organise the contest, said competition for the title was fierce. “I mean, they’re all so bad,” she said. “They’re so terrible.”

Gibson said she hoped the annual contest would continue to provide people with optimism and ideas for small, meaningful actions they can take during the climate crisis. In Gotland, the contest and other initiatives have reduced water consumption by 5% to 7% each year since 2022.

“We all have to channel this anxiety about environmental issues and the challenges we’re facing as a global population,” Gison said. “And this is one way to do that, not by making people feel bad but making them feel good.

“At first you stand and you laugh and it’s like: ‘God, what is this?” Then you start thinking. It’s not just a fun thing, it’s actually saving water. I think people like that.”

Read the full story here.
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UK spending watchdog censures water firms and regulators over sewage failings

NAO finds regulatory gaps have enabled overspending on infrastructure building while not improving sewage worksWater companies have been getting away with failures to improve sewage works and overspending because of regulatory problems, a damning report by the government’s spending watchdog has found.Firms have overspent on infrastructure building, the National Audit Office (NAO) found, with some of these costs being added to consumers’ bills. The Guardian this week reported Ofwat and the independent water commission are investigating water firms for spending up to 10 times as much on their sewage works and piping as comparable countries. Continue reading...

Water companies have been getting away with failures to improve sewage works and overspending because of regulatory problems, a damning report by the government’s spending watchdog has found.Firms have overspent on infrastructure building, the National Audit Office (NAO) found, with some of these costs being added to consumers’ bills. The Guardian this week reported Ofwat and the independent water commission are investigating water firms for spending up to 10 times as much on their sewage works and piping as comparable countries.Bills in England and Wales are rising by £123 on average this year, and will go up further over the next five years, so that companies can fix ageing sewage infrastructure and stop spills of human waste from contaminating rivers and seas. Several water firms have complained to the Competition and Markets Authority because they want the regulator to allow them to increase bills even further.Only 1% of water companies’ actions to improve environmental performance, such as improving sewer overflows, have been inspected by the Environment Agency, the authors of the NAO report said. They also found there was no regulator responsible for proactively inspecting wastewater assets to prevent further environmental harm.The report, which audited the three water regulators, Ofwat, the Environment Agency, and the Drinking Water Inspectorate, as well as the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, also found the regulators did not have a good understanding of the condition of infrastructure assets such as leaking sewers and ageing sewage treatment facilities as they do not have a set of metrics to assess their condition.Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said: “Given the unprecedented situation facing the sector, Defra and the regulators need to act urgently to address industry performance and resilience to ensure the sector can meet government targets and achieve value for money over the long term for bill payers.”Despite the huge costs of infrastructure, the water companies have moved slowly meaning that at the current rate, it would take 700 years to replace the entire existing water network, the report found. Regulatory gaps and a lack of urgency about replacing old and malfunctioning infrastructure has caused a “rising tide of risk” in the sector, which is contributing to increasing bills for customers, the report warned.It also criticised the lack of a national plan for water supply and recommended that Defra must understand the costs and deliverability of its plans, alongside the impact they would have on customers’ bills.Several of the issues raised by the NAO, including concerns about weak infrastructure, have come to the fore in the debate over the future of Thames Water, the country’s largest water company with 16 million customers. Thames, which is under significant financial pressure with almost £20bn in debt, needs to secure fresh investment within months. Questions over the state of Thames’s infrastructure and regulatory punishment it could face for its failures have dogged the process of winning fresh funds. Meanwhile, Ofwat has also rejected its requests to raise bills by as much as 59%, instead allowing a 35% increase over the next five years.The government set up the independent water commission (IWC) last year to investigate how the water industry operated and whether regulation was fit for purpose.Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the Tory chair of the Commons public accounts committee, said: “Today’s NAO report lays bare the scale of the challenges facing the water sector – not least the real prospect of water shortfall without urgent action.“The consequences of government’s failure to regulate this sector properly are now landing squarely on bill payers who are being left to pick up the tab. After years of under-investment, pollution incidents and water supply issues, it is no surprise that consumer trust is at an all-time low. Having not built any reservoirs in the last 30 years, we now need 10.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotion“Consumers rightly expect a water sector that is robust, resilient and fit for the future. Defra and the regulators must focus on rebuilding public confidence and ensure the sector can attract the long-term investment it desperately needs.”An Environment Agency spokesperson said: “We recognise the significant challenges facing the water industry. That is why we will be working with Defra and other water regulators to implement the report’s recommendations and update our frameworks to reflect its findings.”An Ofwat spokesperson added: “We agree with the NAO’s recommendations for Ofwat and we continue to progress our work in these areas, and to contribute to the IWC wider review of the regulatory framework. We also look forward to the IWC’s recommendations and to working with government and other regulators to better deliver for customers and the environment.”A Defra spokesperson said: “The government has taken urgent action to fix the water industry – but change will not happen overnight. We have put water companies under tough special measures through our landmark Water Act.”Water UK, which represents the water companies, has been contacted for comment.

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Water firms admit sewage monitoring damaging public trust

The industry says powers to self-monitor water quality should be handed back to the regulator.

Water companies should no longer be allowed to monitor their own levels of sewage pollution, the industry body has told the BBC exclusively.Instead they are proposing a new, third-party monitoring system to build consumer trust.The recommendation is part of a submission made to the UK government's independent review into the water sector.Campaigners have long complained the companies' self-reporting has prevented the true scale of pollution in UK water being revealed.A third-party system could add more pressure to the regulators, which have also been criticised for not holding the companies to account. A report from the National Audit Office is expected to say on Friday that the Environment Agency does not currently have enough capacity to take on any new monitoring.David Henderson, CEO of industry body Water UK, told the BBC: "We absolutely accept that self-monitoring is not helping to instil trust and so we would like to see an end to it, and in place of it a more robust, third-party system." As part of their permitting arrangements water companies are expected to regularly sample water quality to identify potential pollution, and submit this data to the Environment Agency in an arrangement known as "operator self monitoring". But there have been incidents of misreporting by water companies in England and Wales uncovered by the regulators, who said some cases had been deliberate.Southern Water was previously issued fines totalling £213m by the industry regulator (Ofwat) and the environmental regulator (the Environment Agency) for manipulating sewage data.In that case, there was unreported pollution into numerous conservation sites which caused "major environmental harm" to wildlife.The company later admitted its actions "fell short".Henderson added that the industry never asked to self-monitor, but that it was introduced in 2009 by the then Labour government to "reduce the administrative burden" on the Environment Agency (EA). In 2023, the BBC reported that EA staff were concerned that, due to funding cuts, the Agency was increasingly relying on water companies to self-report rather than carrying out its own checks on pollution from sewage. The current environment minister, Steve Reed, has promised to review the system, calling it the equivalent of companies "mark[ing] their own homework".But the National Audit Office (NAO), which reviews government spending, questioned the ability of the EA to take on any new monitoring. "Regulators need to address the fact that they currently have limited oversight over whether water companies are carrying out their work as expected. It is hard to see how they will achieve this without increased overall capacity," said Anita Shah, NAO Director of Regulation.It is expected to publish a full review of the regulation of the water sector on Friday. A Defra spokesperson told the BBC: "We are committed to taking decisive action to fix the water industry. The Water Commission's recommendations will mark the next major step [to] restore public trust in the sector."The government launched an independent water commission in October to review the sector and the way it is regulated. The public consultation closed on Wednesday with the findings expected in July. Water UK submitted a 200-page document of recommendations, including this call to end self-monitoring.The industry body also requested that water meters be universal across England and Wales to make bills fairer. At present about 60% of the population have a meter."The meter is just to ensure that people are paying for what they use as opposed to a flat rate of system where you can use virtually no water and pay the same as someone filling up a pool three times in a summer," said Henderson."This doesn't properly reflect the value of water and encourage people to conserve it in the way that we need," he added.

Water
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Cambodia Canal's Impact on Mekong Questioned After China Signs Deal

By Francesco Guarascio(Reuters) -Cambodia should share a feasibility study on the impact of a planned China-backed canal that would divert water...

(Reuters) -Cambodia should share a feasibility study on the impact of a planned China-backed canal that would divert water from the rice-growing floodplains of Vietnam's Mekong Delta, said the body overseeing the transnational river.After months of uncertainty, Phnom Penh last week signed a deal with China to develop the Funan Techo Canal when President Xi Jinping visited Cambodia as part of a tour of Southeast Asia.It was Beijing's first explicit public commitment to the project, giving state-controlled construction giant China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) a 49% stake through a subsidiary, but also linking Chinese support to the "sustainability" of the project.The Secretariat of the intergovernmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) that coordinates the sustainable development of Southeast Asia's longest river said it had so far received from Cambodia only "basic information" on the project."We hope that further details, including the feasibility study report and other relevant reports, will be provided," the Commission said in a statement to Reuters this week.That would be needed "to ensure that any potential implications for the broader Mekong Basin are fully considered," it added.The canal has already created concern among environmentalists who say it could further harm the delicate ecology of the Mekong Delta, which is Vietnam's major rice growing region and is already facing problems of drought and salination as result of infrastructure projects upstream. Vietnam is also a leading exporter of rice.On Friday, the Cambodian government said the canal would have minimal environmental impact and "aligns with the 1995 Mekong Agreement" which governs cooperation among riverine countries in Southeast Asia.The Mekong River, fed by a series of tributaries, flows some 4,900 kilometres (3,045 miles) from its source in the Tibetan plateau through China, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to the sea."Whether the Funan Techo Canal violates the 1995 Mekong Agreement depends on several factors, including its connection to the Mekong mainstream," the Commission said, offering additional guidance to Phnom Penh and other member states "to ensure compliance".Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam are members of the MRC while China and Myanmar are dialogue partners.The Cambodian government did not respond to questions about whether it intended to share the requested documents.Vietnam's foreign ministry did not reply to a request for comment after the deal with China was signed, but the country has repeatedly asked Cambodia to share more information about the canal to assess its impact.Xi made no reference to the canal in his public statements in Phnom Penh but a joint communique issued at the end of his visit said China supported Cambodia in building the canal "in accordance with the principles of feasibility and sustainability".The deal signed by CCCC on Friday was for a 151.6 km (94.2 miles) canal costing $1.16 billion.However, the Cambodian government says on the canal's official website that the waterway would stretch 180 km and cost $1.7 billion at completion in 2028.The higher cost reflects a short section to be built by Cambodian firms as well as bridges and water conservation resources, the government told Reuters without clarifying who would pay for the bridges and water conservation.Cambodia's deputy prime minister said in May 2024 that China would cover the entire cost of the project, which was put at $1.7 billion.The canal is designed to link the Mekong Basin to the Gulf of Thailand in Cambodia's southern Kep province. Much of the Mekong's nutrient-rich sediment no longer reaches rice farms in the Delta because of multiple hydroelectric dams built by China upriver, a Reuters analysis showed in 2022.The project agreed with China is also different from the original plan as it is focusing on boosting irrigation rather than solely pursuing navigation purposes, said Brian Eyler, an expert on the Mekong region at U.S.-based think tank Stimson Center.The water diverted from the Mekong Delta "will be much more than previously described," said Eyler.(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; additional reporting by Khanh Vu in Hanoi; Editing by Kate Mayberry)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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EPA chief urges Mexico to help deliver '100% solution' to clean up polluted Tijuana River

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin visited the polluted Tijuana River on the U.S.-Mexico border, calling for a '100% solution' to clean up raw sewage that has fouled the waterway for years.

U.S. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Tuesday called for Mexico and the U.S. to develop a “100% solution” to stop the flow of raw sewage from Tijuana that has polluted the Tijuana River and left communities near the border coping with foul odors and beaches that are often closed because of high bacteria levels.“Americans on our side of the border who have been dealing with this for decades are out of patience,” Zeldin said during a news conference in San Diego. “They want action and they’re right.”Zeldin visited the river north of the border and met with Mexican government officials as well as local officials in San Diego County. He said the Trump administration is seeking “max collaboration and extreme urgency to end a crisis that should have ended a long time ago.”The Tijuana River has been plagued with untreated sewage and industrial waste from Tijuana for decades. The city’s growth has far outpaced the existing sewage treatment plants, and inadequate and broken facilities spew waste into the river, polluting the water and air in Imperial Beach and other communities near the border.Zeldin met for about 90 minutes on Monday night with Mexican Environment Secretary Alicia Bárcena and other Mexican officials, who he said indicated that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and her administration are “fully committed to doing their part to resolving this issue.” Bárcena said in a post on social media that it was a “very productive meeting.”“We agreed to reinforce our joint actions,” Bárcena said, “to accelerate the projects to address the sanitation of Rio Tijuana for the well-being of our communities.”Zeldin said Mexico still needs to provide $88 million that it previously pledged in a 2022 agreement. He said that U.S. and Mexican officials soon plan to draw up a “specific statement from both countries” outlining actions the Mexican government will take to help address the problems.“We all need to be on the same page on the 100% solution from the U.S. side that if all of these things on that list get done, this crisis is over,” Zeldin said.He didn’t discuss costs or a timetable, but said the goal should be to “to get every project done as fast as humanly possible.”The environmental group American Rivers last week ranked the Tijuana River No. 2 on its annual list of the nation’s most endangered rivers, up from No. 9 on the list last year. The group said it elevated the river on the list to bring greater attention to the waterway’s chronic pollution problems and the lack of action to clean it up.Environmental advocates have urged the U.S. government to prioritize fixing and expanding the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant north of the border, which handles sewage from Tijuana and is in disrepair.Zeldin toured the South Bay plant, where he met with Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre and other officials. With him were members of Congress including Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Vista) and Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano).Levin said the U.S. government has appropriated $653 million for fixing and expanding the South Bay wastewater plant — an amount that steadily increased after an initial $300 million was committed in 2020.“We’ve got to get those shovels in the ground,” Levin said. “We’ve got to get the South Bay plant up and running, doubled in capacity, as quickly as possible.”Zeldin also said he was meeting with Navy SEALs who train in the area and have suffered illnesses because of the polluted water.In a recent report, the Department of Defense said about 1,100 cases of illness were reported among Navy SEALS and other service members who were exposed to high levels of bacteria when they trained in and around the ocean near the border.“This has been a problem for decades. It hasn’t been corrected. It’s only gotten worse,” said Dan’l Steward, a retired Navy captain and former SEAL who lives in Coronado but did not attend Tuesday’s events.Decades ago, Steward got sick after basic underwater SEAL training and had to take antibiotics to recover. Steward said he has heard similar stories from SEALs and candidates who undergo training along the beaches in Coronado. “It’s a national security issue,” Steward said. For Navy personnel in the area, he said, “it’s limiting them in their ability to properly train, and it’s endangering their lives for the ones that are going through basic training in particular.”Others affected, he said, include Marines, Coast Guard service members and Border Patrol agents. Steward said his daughter, while surfing nearby, became sick with an infection from a type of bacteria called MRSA, which is resistant to many antibiotics.“The United States has a role to help improve the situation, even though their plants are south of the border,” Steward said. “We all have a role to play here. And I also feel that’s the only way to solve the problem.”Ramon Chairez, director of environmental advocacy for the Encinitas-based nonprofit group Un Mar de Colores, said he’d like to see various actions taken on the U.S. side of the border, including working to dismantle culverts where polluted water cascades down and sends polluted water vapor and gases into the air.Chairez said he thought Zeldin’s focus on collaboration between Mexico and the U.S. made sense.“Overall, I think the general tone is pointing more towards holding Mexico accountable, although there’s some acknowledgment that it’s going to be a collaborative effort on both sides of the border,” Chairez said.One topic that wasn’t discussed but has contributed to the problems, he said, is that many U.S.-based companies have set up factories on the Mexican side of the border.“I didn’t hear a word about maquiladoras and factories and industries on the Mexican side and holding them accountable,” he said. “There’s American and California-based corporations operating all along the border, and especially in Tijuana, and they’re polluting the river just as much.”Matthew Tejada, senior vice president of environmental health for the Natural Resources Defense Fund, said the commitments from U.S. officials sound good, but he also said delivering on those pledges will be more complicated because of cuts in budget and staffing. He noted that Zeldin has said he wants to eliminate 65% of the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget.“It will be an interesting trick for EPA to achieve exactly those sorts of outcomes while they are internally tearing down the very staff and systems they need to actually make those changes happen,” Tejada said.He said the Trump administration’s recent actions, including cutting funding and rolling back environmental protection measures, are “making it that much harder for this country to actually have clean air, clean land and clean water.”

Water
Crisis
Health

New Gear Could Keep California Crab Fishermen on the Water Longer, and Whales Safe

After years of a shortened crab fishing season aimed at preventing whale entanglements off the West Coast, California crabbers are experimenting with a new fishing method that allows them to stay on the water longer while keeping the marine mammals safe

After years of a shortened crab fishing season aimed at preventing whale entanglements off the West Coast, California crabbers are experimenting with a new fishing method that allows them to stay on the water longer while keeping the marine mammals safe.The state has been running a pilot program since 2023 to try out so-called pop-up gear to protect whales while finding a solution to fishermen's woes and is expected to fully authorize the gear for spring Dungeness crab fishing in 2026. The gear, which uses a remote device to pull up lines laid horizontally across the sea floor, also is being tried on lobster in Maine, black sea bass in Georgia and fisheries in Australia and Canada.“Unfortunately, it has been six years we've been delayed or closed early for whales,” said Brand Little, a San Francisco Dungeness crab fisherman who is among those participating in the pilot. "This is a way to get our industry back," he said.The effort comes after reports of whale entanglements off the Pacific Coast spiked a decade ago during a marine heat wave. The change in temperature drove whales, many of them threatened or endangered humpbacks, to seek out food sources closer to the California coast, where they were caught in vertical fishing lines that had been strung between crab pots on the ocean floor and buoys bobbing on the surface.In response, California state regulators barred Dungeness crab fishing when whales are known to be present. That shortened the season significantly, giving fishermen a narrow window in which to make a living. So some began trying pop-up gear and determined the method works and is worth the additional cost.The gear lets fishermen use a remote-operated, acoustic release device to pop-up a crab pot from the ocean floor rather than have it tethered to a floating buoy. Pots can be strung together with ropes laid horizontally instead of vertically, so whales can pass over them while migrating through the area.“If you remove the vertical line, you have removed the entanglement risk, and you have allowed a fishery to continue,” said Ryan Bartling, senior environmental scientist supervisor with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.Many long-time Dungeness crab fishermen have been slow to warm up to the idea due to the cost, which can run $1,000 per pop-up device plus an on-board unit. It also takes time to restring the pots after an intense winter season of derby-style fishing, which takes place when whales are calving in warmer waters to the south.There also is a need for a unified tracking system since the gear isn’t visible on the surface, Bartling said.More than four dozen whales were entangled in fishing nets in 2015, compared with an annual average of 10 in prior years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Many were humpback whales, which were listed as endangered in the 1970s and have been recovering since protections were put in place, the agency said.Environmental advocates sued California over the increased entanglements and reached a settlement with the state in 2019 that encouraged the use of ropeless gear.Bart Chadwick, who owns San Diego-based Sub Sea Sonics, said he previously used pop-up technology to retrieve expensive equipment while conducting environmental work at sea. When he retired from his job, he made tweaks so it could be adapted for fishing.“It allows them to fish in places they wouldn’t otherwise,” Chadwick said, adding the technology also reduces gear losses.Most Dungeness crab fishermen make their money during the early part of the season when whales typically aren't near the California coast. Experts say the pop-up gear won't work then due to crowding and the technology is currently being considered solely for the smaller spring season, which starts April 16 in central California.Geoff Shester, senior scientist at conservation organization Oceana, said he thinks the method could eventually be used more broadly if fishermen find it efficient and cost-effective.“Think about electric cars, or hybrids, or even digital cameras," Shester said. "Every time you have a new technology, there is a lot of resistance at first.”Crab fisherman Ben Platt said he was a vocal opponent but will join this year's pilot since multiple pots now can be strung together, making the method simpler and cheaper. Still, he said many fishermen have concerns and aren't likely to get on board.“We’ll just have to see and take a look at the results,” Platt said.For Stephen Melz, who fishes out of Half Moon Bay, California, having more time out on the ocean is key. Years ago, he said he would go out for Dungeness crab starting in November and fish through the spring.Now, with the shortened season, he said there is no room for error and the gear helps him get out so he can pay his bills.“Better than just sitting at dock,” he said.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Feb. 2025

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