Jim Partan and Keenan Ball had an idea for a way to deploy deep-water lobster traps that could help prevent whale entanglements and potentially reopen closed fishing areas off the New England coast.
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution engineers even had a prototype in hand: a 340-pound, 42-inch-high spindle that would attach to lobster traps and keep fishing line underwater until the gear was ready to be retrieved.
What they didn't have was any funding to bring the spindle out of their their cramped Smith Laboratory workspace to do field testing, a vital step before they could put it on a fishing boat for a trial run.
