International interest in Australian Whale Pingers

Fumunda Marine, located at the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Innovation Centre, is widely recognised as a world leader in the design and manufacture of underwater alarms known as ‘Pingers’. Pingers are used to stop marine mammal “bycatch” – the term used to describe the entanglement of marine mammals in fishing nets.

With the support of the Queensland Government, in 2009 Fumunda was able to design a new low frequency Pinger specifically aimed at warning migrating Humpback whales to the presence of shark nets off Australia’s East Coast says Fumunda Managing Director James Turner.

Queensland's Minister for Fisheries and Marine Infrastructure Craig Wallace recently announced that the use of the Whale Pingers has seen a significant reduction in whale entanglements.

There was just one in 2010 and another in 2011 after the Pingers were introduced recently and both of these whales were successfully released.

Australian scientists estimate the number of whales migrating up and down Australia’s East Coast is increasing ten percent annually, making the reduction in whale entanglement numbers since the Pingers were fitted to the shark nets even more significant claims Mr Turner.

According to Mr Turner, with Governments and the commercial fishing industry now starting to support the use of Pingers, marine mammal bycatch can be reduced significantly. 

“The use of Pingers has the potential to save many of the 300,000 marine mammals estimated that are caught and drown in fishing gear around the world every year.”

The recent announcement made by Minister Wallace has helped to bring the subject of marine mammal bycatch and the use of Pingers as an effective way to solve the problem, to a wide audience comments Mr Turner.

“And this is great news not only for our business but for the global marine environment”

“We have received enquiries about the new Whale Pinger from Governments and scientists in South Africa, Portugal, Ecuador, Tanzania, and the USA to name a few.”

Tim Werner, The Director for the non-profit Consortium for Wildlife Bycatch at the New England Aquarium in Boston, recently convened an International seminar in the USA to examine techniques for reducing marine mammal bycatch in gillnets.

Fifty of the world leading marine mammal biologists attended and news of the Whale Pinger gained a lot of attention added Mr Turner.

“It’s important now that we keep the momentum in Pinger interest going” Mr Turner said. “The new Whale Pinger is a new and exciting step forward in whale protection but we must now move to ensure that we can successfully commercialise the product in order to meet expected global demand.”

Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast CEO Mark Paddenburg said the international interest in Fumunda highlights that Australia is at the forefront of this cutting-edge technology focussed on protecting marine animals.

“Fumunda is one of 86 companies that have been supported by the Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast and is a testament to the innovators and entrepreneurs growing world class businesses from a Sunshine Coast base.”

For more information about Fumunda Marine and their range of marine mammal saving Pingers, please visit www.fumunda.com or call 07 5450 2764.

For more information contact:
Fumunda Marine Managing Director James Turner on +61 7 5450 2764 or james@fumunda.com or Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast Marketing Coordinator Hayley Passmore on +61 7 5450 2609, hpassmor@usc.edu.au or visit www.innovation-centre.com.au.  

About Fumunda:
Fumunda was formed with the express intent to produce high quality, reliable commercial fishing products. Fumunda has been developing innovative commercial fishing products for over a decade and today Fumunda is widely recognised as the world leader in the design and manufacture of marine mammal acoustic alarm devices commonly known as "Pingers".

Pingers are widely used in the commercial fishing industry in an effort to mitigate the incidental entanglement of Porpoises, Dolphins and Whales (cetaceans) in fishing nets. Pingers reduce damage to fishing gear caused by cetacean entanglements and help reduce the loss of fish caught in nets due to predatory behaviour.

About the Innovation Centre Sunshine Coast:
Established in 2002, the Innovation Centre, a University of the Sunshine Coast company supported by the Queensland Government, aims to create new jobs in new industries for the Sunshine Coast region.

Located on the edge of the USC campus, the Innovation Centre currently works with around 20 innovative companies in the ICT, clean technology and health technology industries and offers world-class business support for entrepreneurs and growing companies. To date, the Innovation Centre has supported the start-up and growth of 86 businesses, creating around 350 jobs.

The Innovation Centre facility includes a Business Incubator and Business Accelerator which provide serviced offices, high speed fibre connections, consulting support, investment readiness and networking for both start-up and growth businesses.

The Innovation Centre is at the hub of the Business and Technology Precinct taking shape around the University of the Sunshine Coast. Over $100m has been invested in infrastructure in the last two years – including roads, a bus station and dark fibre optic cabling – to help advance the Precinct which has the potential to provide skilled jobs for over 6,000 people in the next 10 – 15 years.

The Innovation Centre also runs an extensive program of business events – attracting over 6,000 people to date - designed to help local entrepreneurs to connect with each other and the University and build a productive network.

For more information visit www.innovation-centre.com.au