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!
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.
I smell another crisis.
so far the farmers of kalifornia, now the fishermen.
This is divide and conquer at it’s best!
We need to help all of these folks fight thier fight.
Gloom doom and despair....or not. There was a big thread right here last summer about this, and we feasted on cheap lobster on vacation. I remember in some places they had to give the lobster away.
http://notesfromalobsterfishingvillage.blogspot.com/2009/05/some-good-news-on-maine-lobster-fishing.html
Friday, 8 May 2009
Maine lobster population at an all time high
Some good news on the Maine lobster fishing front - a new stock assessment report says the lobster population in the Gulf of Maine is at an all-time high. You have to laugh because for years and years scientists have been harping on with doom and gloom about how the lobster population is declining. All the while, the Maine fisherman have been saying the reverse is true.
Now we have the data to prove it. As the article states:
There is a high abundance of lobsters and strong rates of replenishment in most of the Gulf of Maine and on Georges Bank. But there is low abundance and poor replenishment in southern New England and Massachusetts Bay.