In good news for the marine environment, the Agriculture Ministry announced last week that it was banning the use of drones and associated equipment for fishing.
Following an appeal by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel to outlaw remotely piloted aircraft in fishing, the Civil Aviation Authority told the Agriculture Ministry’s fishing inspectorate that the practice violated flying regulations.
Fishermen who already hold a license to fish and fly a drone for the purpose can apply to the fishing inspectorate for an exemption to the new regulations.
Drone fishing, popularized in Israel after two highly skilled fishermen posted their successful catches on social media, allows enthusiasts to cast their rods hundreds of meters out to sea, where larger creatures such as sea turtles roam.
A fishing line hundreds of meters long runs from the rod on the beach to the drone, and from the drone into the sea, with the latter section carrying the hooks and bait. The hook is cast, the fish is reeled in from the shore-based fishing rod and the drone returns to land.
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Tal Raz, who goes into the sea daily at Bat Galim, a neighborhood in the northern city of Haifa, to check on the rich marine life and remove garbage and abandoned fishing gear, has complained of the effects of drone fishing.
Tal Raz rescues a turtle ensnared in waste fishing tackle in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Bat Galim, northern Israel, earlier this year. (Haim Raz)
Last year, she told The Times of Israel that apart from wildlife being ensnared, someone diving off Bat Galim had become entangled in fishing line and had to be rescued by two people on a kayak, while a couple of surfers were also snared, one across the throat. “It’s a death trap,” she said.
Welcoming the change in regulations, the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel explained in a statement that drone-related fishing lines endanger swimmers, surfers and kayak paddlers. Hooks and baits that are dropped from the air trap sea turtles and other protected animals, and the fishing lines that remain in many cases are abandoned in the sea, becoming marine debris that stays there for years and continues to harm marine animals.
The group encouraged members of the public to use its Hebrew-language SeaWatch application to report instances of fishermen using drones.
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