[27 sailfish]

neglected crab pots from the Chesapeake

By: WMAR STAFF
Posted at 1:40 PM, Mar 07, 2023

and last updated 6:09 PM, Mar 07, 2023
ESSEX, Md. — Baltimore County and the non-profit Oyster Recovery Partnership are expanding their effort to remove neglected crab traps from the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay.
Last year the partnership resulted in 2,300 pieces being recovered from the Patapsco River.
In 2023 the goal is to remove an additional 2,000 or so derelict pots along a 3,000-acre area, northeast of Hart Miller Island, off the Back River Neck peninsula.
To do so watermen are using side-scan sonar technology that detects pot debris that are now submerged.
It's estimated these "ghost traps" kill millions of crabs, fish and turtles annually.
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“Removing and recycling this debris is a vital project for the health of our waterways, and we’re proud to again bring together the environmental science community and local watermen for this win-win project,” said Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski. “In removing thousands of derelict crab pots, we not only protect and improve the environment, but we do so in a way that also supports those who depend on the Bay for their livelihood.”

 

[longtail]

I don’t believe any of that

 

[Shadhead]

2,300 pots is a lot of pots, and the same expected this year. Wow.

Thanks

 

[hammock14]

They have been talking about ghost pots for a long time. Cool to see side scan being put to good use to remove these.

 

[Cabyn Fever]

So we pay the people who "lost" the pots to clean up their own mess???

 

[longtail]

yep. Call it what it is, subsidizing. It’s not a bad thing, otherwise they’d be oystering and netting too, but pots if left create habitat. Ever see how much life is on one of them when you pull it up?

 

[V-Tinny]

So we pay the people who "lost" the pots to clean up their own mess???

Lost means likely the buoy was run over by an UN-attentative boater, cutting the line.

 

[Capt.Nick]

The Crabbers thar run their pots on long lines rarely lose any pots .I started doing this in the 70s when I crabbed alone and lots of big commercial crabbers use this technique also. Don's Crabs ,from Seneca creek used this method in the 70s and had out 2,000 pots at the time.The 10ft,pvc pipes with flags on them that you see sticking up in the Bay during crabbing season are attached 1,000 ft ground lines with 20 pots or more spaced along them. The big rigs pull up to their markers and pull the lines through a line puller and detach the pots with qiuck release snaps attached to 3ft. lines and pull the main line into the boat simultaniously,. They then power wash the pots and reset the line out again. reataching the cleaned pots as they reset the line. When I used to run individual pots on floats,I would lose a lot of pots. Almost 200 one year.When I changed over to long lining , the only way I lost pots is when someone stole them, Pots are too expensive these days to run singular on floats.They have a choice on how to set out their crab pots and that choice is theirs. They can change the way they set their pots in the water and solve the problem

 

[Justintime]

Glad to hear they’re trying to recover them because that’s a viscous cycle. I wonder what they do with all the recovered ones?

 

[V-Tinny]

yep. Call it what it is, subsidizing. It’s not a bad thing, otherwise they’d be oystering and netting too, but pots if left create habitat. Ever see how much life is on one of them when you pull it up?

In over 50 years I don't ever recall seeing anything DEAD in a "ghost" pot. Every one I've pulled out of the water in winter has been filled with all sorts of life from crabs, shrimps, fish, bugs of all sorts, but never anything dead.

 

[SteveL]

Regional Impact Assessment of Derelict Fishing Gear in the Chesapeake Bay | OR&R's Marine Debris Program

This project investigated the physical, biological, and socio-economic impacts of Derelict Fishing Gear (DFG) in the Chesapeake Bay.

marinedebris.noaa.gov

 

[SteveL]

Results
This study found that derelict crab pots in both Maryland and Virginia compete with active crab pots, killing approximately 3.3 million blue crabs annually, and capturing more than 40 non-target fish species. Using a model over a six-year period from 2008-2014, the researchers found that targeted removal of derelict crab pots in high-density fishing areas led to an estimated increase in harvest of 38 million pounds across the Chesapeake Bay. This 23.8% increase resulted in estimated gains of $33.5 million. Over the six year period, $4.18 million were spent to remove 34,408 derelict pots, resulting in increased gear efficiency for the active commercial fishery and an additional 29.8 million pounds in harvest valued at $21.3 million. This figure includes the payment to the participants and the purchase of the equipment (side scan units) they used to locate the derelict gear. It does not include funding to collect, coordinate, and analyze the data.

 

[SteveL]

https://www.nfwf.org/sites/default/files/finalreports1/14898_2006-0001-010_Final.pdf

 

[Market Price]

In over 50 years I don't ever recall seeing anything DEAD in a "ghost" pot. Every one I've pulled out of the water in winter has been filled with all sorts of life from crabs, shrimps, fish, bugs of all sorts, but never anything dead.

If you think about it that makes sense, stuff is dying, but not of old age or starvation. If I locked you in a small room with a lion, and no gazelles came in, I wouldn't find you in there dead.

 

[V-Tinny]

If you think about it that makes sense, stuff is dying, but not of old age or starvation. If I locked you in a small room with a lion, and no gazelles came in, I wouldn't find you in there dead.

But yet the researchers found them? Pretty convenient if you want the research to continue to be funded......

 

[longtail]

and they were probably clean

 

[Flybyknight]

Bought a new pot, for my son, and put it in The Mispillion River.
The next day it was gone; somebody stole it.
Don't do that anymore.
Richard

 

[JDski]

Ghost pots 2023 in the Chesapeake bay #youaintnocrabber #bodkinpointseafood #fvsoutherngirl

www.youtube.com

Just saw this the other day. I guess this site don't like inserted Youtube shorts.