SBIR-STTR Award

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is a convenient, sustainable, cost effective, and environmentally friendly crustacean bait for novice and professional fishermen worldwide. The novel crustacean fishing bait is completely safe, synthetic, and comprised of the chemical cues released from traditional rotting fish bait. The scent cues release at a tunable rate to provide optimal fishing outcomes. Given the rising cost of fish due to competition with omega-3 pill producers, the labor costs associated with obtaining bait, and the space bait takes up on a fishermen?s boat the new bait will save fishermen time, money, and inconvenience. The societal benefit that stems from the proposed product is likely the dramatic reduction in fish being removed from the ocean for use as crustacean attractants. Currently amount of fish removed from the ocean for bait is estimated to be over 18 million tons, and is significantly disruptive to the oceanic food web. The proposed bait will also reduce unwanted capture and killing of by-catch (e.g. sea turtles, dolphins, and seals) by lessening the need for indiscriminate drift nets they get caught in. Commercially, the product will save fishermen money estimated at over $1,000 per ton of crustaceans.

The objectives of this Phase I research project are to identify those molecules that are given off from current baits, incorporating newly identified (and identified but not yet tested) compounds into a formulated bait prototype product, optimizing the attractant release kinetics, and testing the ability to catch target species. Bait formulations will be evaluated by fishermen on several crustaceans to establish efficacy. It is anticipated that this research will help address the ongoing ecological destruction associated with over-fishing and ocean by-catch. Further, the crustacean industry is struggling with questions about bait sustainability which driven by state and federal regulatory pressures on fishing that could impact conventional bait supply and resulting in higher prices of conventional crustacean bait. These circumstances present an ecological and commercial opportunity for a new baiting alternative. The proposed bait product being developed in this project will help lessen the aforementioned problems by reducing the need to capture bait fish to create crustacean bait, as well as saving fishermen money. The intellectual merit of the proposed activity will be the identification of the chemical cues given off from fish/mammals that most intensely attract all species of crustaceans as well as developing a fine-tuned matrix for releasing these attractants at a dissolution rate desired by fishermen under variable fishing conditions.

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project promises to deliver a convenient, sustainable, cost effective, and environmentally friendly bait for crustacean fishermen, worldwide. The patent- pending innovation offers a formulated, synthetic product that mimics scent cues released from traditional fish bait, while offsetting unwarranted ecological impacts of current practices. Specifically, scent cues can be released at variable rates to provide optimal results in addressing fishing methods and preferences in different conditions and regions. Given rising costs of fish due to competition with omega-3 supplements producers, as well as labor and frozen storage costs of obtaining wild bait, and vessel space needed for such bait when fishing, the new bait will save fishermen time, money, and inconvenience. Commercially, cost advantages are likely to generate significant demand in addition to the overall practical advantages. From a societal perspective, a sustainable, synthetic product can dramatically reduce "net fishing" for baiting crustacean traps. Thus, fish could be conserved in the oceanic food chain, and indiscriminate killing of sea turtles, dolphins and other by- catch would be diminished through reduced net fishing practices now employed in the capture of small wild fish traditionally used for crustacean bait.The objectives of this Phase II research project are: to optimize solubility kinetics of the attractant-releasing matrix; further characterize naturally occurring molecules released by traditional bait fish; and validate product performance to catch indigenous crustacean species in the United States. Field research would focus on concentrations of chemo-attractants required to optimize manufacturing formulation and direct costs. The intellectual merit of the proposed activity will be the characterization of the chemical basis for cues emitted by piscine, avian and mammalian tissue that most intensely attract crustacean species while developing a range of matrix formulations for optimally releasing such attractants in various fishing conditions. In addition to globally urgent considerations of by-catch and wild stock depletion, the industry has been struggling with bait sustainability issues. These challenges have intensified with federal and state agencies seeking court orders to regulate catch limits, resulting in reduced supply and higher prices of bait fish. These circumstances frame an ecological and commercial opportunity for this synthetic bait alternative. Reducing the need to capture wild bait fish, as well as delivering cost and logistical advantages to commercial crustacean fisheries are expected to drive rapid market penetration upon completion of product research and development in this Phase II project.