Lost ‘ghost' traps keep catching lobsters; Maine lobstermen lose 100,000 to 200,000 traps per year
Associated Press
Updated: 11/27/2009 07:27:52 AM EST, Friday, Nov. 27
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. … 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. … 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. …
