Project ANZUELO (Project Hook) is a line of investigation of CRAM Foundation that is the sum of other projects that the Foundation has conducted with an aim to decrease the mortality rate of marine turtles associated with the accidental capture by the long-line fishing fleet on our coasts.

The final objective of Project ANZUELO was to design a new type of hook made from a special material in the form that, if lodged in the esophagus of a turtle, it will disolve and can be expelled by the animal via the digestive tract, and at the same time, allows the fishermen to work with normality. To complete this project, the services of the DIOPMA Centre of the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Barcelona were used. They were entrusted with the selection of different alloy materials to study their characteristics and  possible commercialization. Following this line of study, some hooks were constructed from these materials and hardening treatments were realised.  The amount of weight that was able to be held by the hooks was analyzed, and tests of a pH5,5 were realised to simulated the esophagus of a marine turtle.  In the Centre of Recuperation of CRAM Foundation, tests were conducted on the esophageal pH of some of the admitted turtles.

This project was carried out with the collaboration of WWF/Adena and was co-financed by the Fundación Biodiversidad.

Simulation of forces on an aluminium alloy hook

Different materials were used that could be dissolved by the acids of the turtle’s digestive system

Watch the final report in PDF:

Informe Proyecto Anzuelo (IN SPANISH) [Size 820 kb]