"Ghost Traps" Catch Lobsters For Years - ME Lobster Fleet Loses 100-200K Traps Annually

[hatrack]

PORTLAND (AP) -- 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.

EDIT

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/huntingandfishing/ci_13875981

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I never even thought about what happened to those old wire traps. Now the wooden ones, they might

have posed some issues for a while, but they wouldn't have lasted all that long.

[amborin]

2. horrible

[nashville_brook]

3. i don't think i can eat lobster again...not after valentine's day...

i was cleaning some tails to put in the oven, and noticed, for the first time (really noticed) how amazing and beautiful the critter's exoskeleton is. it's simply gorgeous...right down to the frilly hairs at the very end of the tail. they just seem too precious to eat.

[bahrbearian]

4. I know that the Alaskan Crab Pots have

a section of Cotton twine lacing that rots away, so the crabs can escape if the pot is lost, I would imagine that Lobster pots would have a simular release function too.

[eppur_se_muova]

5. For a real horror story, try googling "ghost nets". nt

[jberryhill]

6. "It would be very interesting if we could drain the ocean and look at what's down there,"

[elehhhhna]

7. why's the fed regulating their rope? congress buying rope futures?

cui bono?

[joshcryer]

8. Holy fuck that's a lot of lost traps.

[petronius]

9. I see lost traps while diving in CA. Haven't really noticed lobsters in them

(I'll have to look next time to see if the trap has a 'fail-open' feature) but I have seen diving birds snagged in the traps. I don't know if they're actually going after something in the cage or if they are just chasing fish and fail to see the wires, but it's a pretty sad sight...