Ghost Pots - We don't need to pay anymore...

[paxfish]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Z3md2mUZ7nw

So this Video from VIMS describes the effort for ghost pot removal over the last couple of years. 19,000 pots removed in Virginia with an estimated 60,000 more lost each year. It also illustrates just how much damage each individual pot does to the fishery.

We as taxpayers funded the effort so far, both in Virginia and in Maryland. The results illustrate how widespread an issue this is. The video outlines a process for clean up and describes methods for reducing the issues in the future. A taxpayer funded study, basically.

So now that the clean-up process is known, and remediation methods are known, the folks who are making the mess need to either:

a) Pay in to a fund that will continue the annual clean up process, which appears to be only about 17% effective (10,000 recovered versus 60,000 lost)

or

b) Be required to have a degradable panel on all commercial pots, so that the ghost pot does not kill for years and years.

[Scott McGuire]

or

C) require daisy chains

[27 sailfish]

Easy start would be more visible floats.

There is a crabber off James Island ( south of #78 ) that uses bright orange floats with small orange flags. Very easy to spot the floats about 1/4 mile away.

Unlike the dark blue or green that are tough to see even 50 feet away.

Other thing is common sense in placing them. Saw today 4/30 /12 there are floats right in line with Sandy Point entrance. One of the busiest ramps and yet pots are set in area very likely they will be cut off.

Color - you guessed it , dark green.

[chesbay2]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Z3md2mUZ7nw

So now that the clean-up process is known, and remediation methods are known, the folks who are making the mess need to...

i need to make sure i understand this clearly. A pot costs me 20$, a cork costs 4$, iron costs 4$, paint costs @ 4$ a pot, rope costs 3$, zinc costs 1.25. When i add it up, a pot costs just under 40$. Not to mention the time to rig. I hope your argument isn't that pots are lost on purpose. Or that a pot owner "made the mess."

Dark corks are great on white cap days, but fair weather people don't know that.

What is a daisy chain?

[buckshotgumbo]

A daisy chain is an expensive trolling rig that I lost on a damn stinkin crab pot...
I will say, that although I don't agree with paying a waterman to reclaim ghost pots, I'm interested in knowing just how long a pot (complete with wire, not just frame) lasts in the main stem of the bay before holes open up.

[chesbay2]

Oh that daisy chain. Thought there was something i was missing out on.

[Scott McGuire]

A daisy chain is (perhaps a name I'm using improperly) a string of crab pots tied together with a float on each end. It's a way to fish the same number of pots, but it also would be easier to locate if a float gets cut off. I don't think it's a 100% solution, but more daisy chains would cut down on the number of lost pots.

[chesbay2]

Got ya. We call it a trotline. I agree, but there is a catch. During the ghost pot program we hooked into a line of them. We pulled 13 pots by the time we got to the end of the string. You only have two markers and if those are cut you lose it all. That is kinda a lose for everyone. We lose the pots and the dead loss is greater. We do try to recover our pots when lost. It is money sitting on the bottom. You would be surprised how long it can take to hook a lost pot. I have my own thoughts on the pros and cons of the program. But opinions are like fish tales... We all got one.
Problem solving is better than a boxing ring.

[chesbay2]

By the time we completed the program in the spring, there were few pots that could be salvaged. Most of what we found was rebarb. I would also like to know how long they last. I would bet virginia has a better idea than md. They fully support pot recovery.

[Scott McGuire]

Got ya. We call it a trotline. I agree, but there is a catch. During the ghost pot program we hooked into a line of them. We pulled 13 pots by the time we got to the end of the string. You only have two markers and if those are cut you lose it all. That is kinda a lose for everyone. We lose the pots and the dead loss is greater. We do try to recover our pots when lost. It is money sitting on the bottom. You would be surprised how long it can take to hook a lost pot. I have my own thoughts on the pros and cons of the program. But opinions are like fish tales... We all got one.
Problem solving is better than a boxing ring.

I would think that a trotline of pots would be easier to locate/recover if it was lost by the owner. I know I would be more more inclined to recover a $500 piece of equipment than a $40 one. It's a bummer that the 13 pot string was lost, but I think your experience is actually a good one - you recovered 13 pots all at once because they were tied together. How many would you have found if they were not tied together?

Good discussion.
-S