NOAA Fisheries is giving mariners a heads-up about some tests taking place in the waters around Cape Cod and the Gulf of Maine.
Crews have deployed ropeless fishing gear for lobsters and crabs that don't have marking buoys on the surface.
Researchers are trying to see how the equipment works out as they look for ways to keep critically endangered right whales that visit the region from getting entangled in the ropes typically used by watermen.
NOAA is asking that anyone who accidentally tows up one of their ropeless units to give them a call.
(Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Photo: JIM WATSON / AFP / Getty Images