Posted on 11/26/2009 6:48:46 PM PST by Daffynition
PORTLAND, Maine ― Beneath the cold ocean waters off the coast of Maine, the nation's lobster breadbasket, lie hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of old wire lobster "ghost traps." Lost over the years to storms, boats — even the knives of fishermen who've cut them from their buoys to settle scores — many of the traps continue catching lobsters.
Marine biologists say lost and abandoned lobster, crab and other fish traps plague coastal waters around the globe, putting pressure on a number of already-stressed fish populations. In U.S. waters alone, millions of dollars' worth of marketable seafood is lost each year.
Lobstermen this winter will grapple up gear from selected spots in the first large-scale study of ghost traps along the Maine coast. Nationwide, other studies are focusing on lost traps off the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts.
"It would be very interesting if we could drain the ocean and look at what's down there," said Holly Bamford, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Program. "We might be surprised."
The extent of Maine's ghost-trap problem isn't fully known, but lobstermen say they sometimes recover traps that contain skinny lobsters — ones that appear to have not eaten — or shells from lobsters that have starved and withered away to nothing or been eaten by other lobsters.
Most lobstermen feel it'll get worse with a new federal regulation requiring them to use a certain type of rope on their gear. The rope, they say, is prone to breaking and will result in even more lost traps.
Fishermen have been losing and discarding equipment for as long as they've plied the world's seas. But the range and impact of that refuse has grown in the past 50 years as fishing has increased, especially with more durable, non-biodegradable equipment.
The ability of lost lobster traps to continue fishing diminishes as the bait — herring or some other oily fish — dissipates. Still, scientists believe the traps continue catching lobsters, attracting creatures in search of shelter. And while the traps are required to have escape vents that break free over time, not all vents break free as intended.
"Ghost fishing" studies are under way or recently completed along all U.S. coasts. They include looks at Dungeness crab traps in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California; blue crab and sea bass traps off North Carolina; blue crab traps in the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico; spiny lobster traps in Florida; and fish traps in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Other studies have looked at the impact of lost fishing nets found in Puget Sound in Washington and off the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where more than 600 tons of nets were collected.
In Maine, the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation has received a $200,000 grant to look at the issue. The foundation plans to recruit 10 lobstermen in each of seven Maine harbors to grapple for lost traps late this winter or early spring, said Laura Ludwig, who is heading the project.
The findings will be recorded and assessed in hopes of determining how effective the traps are at fishing after they've been lost in the deep. Depending on their condition, the recovered traps will be returned to their rightful owners, recycled or disposed of.
In Maine, where lobstermen actively fish more than 2 million traps, it's estimated that 5 to 10 percent — 100,000 to 200,000 — are lost in any given year. In a decade, that could be 1 or 2 million lost traps; if that's the case, there could be as many abandoned and lost traps off the Maine coast as ones currently in use.
Ben Crocker Jr., a lobsterman from Roque Bluffs in eastern Maine, says most lobstermen feel the lost traps aren't actively catching lobsters because they're so mangled and don't have bait in them.
"It's mostly just garbage on the bottom," he said.
Two winters ago, Ian Lussier of Owls Head grappled for lost traps with another lobsterman in Penobscot Bay and recovered several hundred traps in depths of 100 to 400 feet, he said. Some had tags showing they were owned by lobstermen who hadn't fished in more than a decade. Some traps were wooden, which haven't been used for the most part for 25 years.
How much lobster the traps are catching is almost a "non-issue" for Lussier because he believes so few are caught.
The bigger issue, he says, is a new federal regulation that aims to protect endangered North Atlantic right whales by outlawing use of floating rope that connects lobster traps on the ocean bottom and sometimes entangles the whales.
Lobstermen say the sinking rope sits on the rocky bottom, where it easily abrades and breaks free, resulting in more lost gear. Lussier said he lost 87 traps out of his 800 between April 5, when the rope law went into effect, and the middle of June, because the rope deteriorated on the rocky bottom.
"What's going to happen is more traps are going to build up on the bottom in areas where we have to use sinking line," Lussier said.
Worldwide, concerns about lost gear are growing.
Besides continuing to catch fish and shellfish, lost nets and traps have been known to snag whales, seabirds, turtles and other animals, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reported this year. They can also hurt the benthic, or ocean-bottom, environment and create navigational hazards.
Frank Chopin, a senior fisheries officer with FAO in Rome, said more people are taking part in programs and campaigns to recover the gear. But there hasn't been a systematic approach to removing it.
"It's a complicated issue," he said. "And it's not going to go away."
In this Friday, Nov. 13, 2009 photo, a lost lobster trap sits on the ocean floor off Biddeford, Maine. Marine biologists say "ghost traps" lost by lobstermen continue to catch lobsters as they sit untended in the cold ocean waters off Maine's coast. This winter lobstermen will grapple up gear from selected spots in the first large-scale study of ghost traps. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
Reminds me of temporary tax increases.
>> Marine biologists say...
Any more, whenever I hear “this-or-that group of scientists say...” I reflexively reach behind and cover up my billfold. It’s just an instinctive reaction.
I wonder how much harm will come from blindly grappling up stuff from the ocean bottom?
“It’s a complicated issue,” he said. “And it’s not going to go away.”
Ummm.... no it’s not. And yes, it will.
ALL modern traps used (at least for crab) have a good sized hole built into them. To use the traps, you have to tie some cotton twine back and forth across the hole so if a crab goes in the main door, he can’t get out.
After a few days underwater, the twine will decompose and the crabs/lobsters will simply swim out.
As far as old traps go - does the writer have even the tiniest clue HOW ABSOLUTELY CORROSIVE SEA WATER IS?
Don’t think so!
HAHAHAHAHA!!!
When I was about 12, my grandfather drained a 10 acre so they could do some dam repair.
For a 12 year year old boy, it was the coolest thing. We scooped bass and catfish all day one day into 55 gallon drums and moved them to another lake downstream.
Way cool.
These days, you’d get arrested for a stunt like that...
Sad, but true!
;-)
Towel origami!
So, if these abandoned traps will continue to “trap” water bugs, why do the lobstermen bait them when trapping them normally? Think of the money that could be saved.
I think this is about as relevant as AGW is right now with a hell of a lot of exagerration thrown in to make folks sympathetic to a BUG!
A delicious bug, but a bug nonetheless.
SZ
I used to hate those things when I was snorkeling in the Keys and the Bahamas. Old lost traps use trapped/dead lobsters as “bait” for the next lobster and so on forever.
They pissed me off so much. I’d see 3 or 4 “lost” traps around one trap with a rope and a float. I’d end up opening the doors on the lost traps, and pinning them back, so critters could escape. A drop in the bucket to do a few like that, of course.
The solution is that traps MUST have doors that will fall off after a while, using latches and hinges that will corrode or rot and fall off. On working traps, these could be replaced every few months on the lobster boats.
But trap users don’t want the hassle. And they end up “competing” against many many “ghost” traps, forever.
IN the KEys, lobster traps are generally wood, and rot after a while. I’d actually just pull planks off of lost traps, and turn them into “lobster havens” they could enter and leave.
But in the Bahamas, they used rubber-dipped galvy steel mesh. Those suckers would last for DECADES, killing generation after generation of lobsters.
Yes, bugs are great eating, but it’s stupid to have 3 or 4 “lost” traps still killing the critters for every “working” trap in the area.
Nobody gains by killing the bugs for NOTHING.
I have seen this personally with my own eyes many many times. Each trapped bug that starves becomes "bait" for the next bug and so on ad infinitum. In most "ghost" traps, I would see live bugs, dead bugs, and bug shells, telling the story.
They might last for decades - but I tend to think that would be quite a stretch.
And remember. Lobster’s gotta have a good reason to go in there. And seeing his dead mother in law might not cut it!
(trap has no bait...)
Even before that happens, the bait gets old, and the gear quits fishing. Experience proves all of the above. These things have long been found to be the truth of the matter. What has changed???
This is in addition to permanently affixed escape rings of such a size that will allow under size crabs to escape --- which includes pretty much ALL the female crabs, as they are not allowed to be landed regardless. Since males of a certain number of years old get much bigger than the females of any age, it was simple (and good practice) to have such sized escape rings. It goes a very long way to keep the fishery safe from so-called "over fishing". The crabs will also sort themselves for size, on longer "soaks".
In fact, in regards to Dungeness, it's pretty well IMPOSSIBLE to "over fish" them with the legal gear in use today.
When I crabbed in the Bering years ago, there was LAW there too, that a certain minimum length of cotton twine be used in the seizings. I know this well enough, for I used to "web" king crab pots on land, in addition to working the deck during the season.
This "ghost fishing" in regards to Dungeness post is nothing much more than re-application of fisheries management (read enviro-fascist PRESERVATIONISTS) media release PR to help pave the way for ever more total closures, and help justify the draconian ones currently being implemented.
If they are having trouble on the East Coast with lobster pots, FIX IT OVER THERE, dammit!
They just announced yet another closure area off the Sonoma Coast, to take effect next year(?) right where I crabbed last winter. With Salmon fishing being totally closed State wide for two years, there wasn't much any other fishing there. Less than a dozen small vessels (6-7) worked the area crabbing...but they closed the area to ALL fishing, including the well thought out, well managed & relatively benign harvesting of male-only Dungeness crabs, once they reached a certain size.
Even if all the large males where to be caught (which won't happen), there would be PLENTY enough of the small ones left to do the breeding. It's been like this FOR YEARS!
What are these ninnys talking about? Fear, fear, fear...
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