derelict fishing gear

Since our very first event in St. Petersburg, Florida, the Ocean Aid 360 Ghost Trap Rodeo, which resembles an all-ages fishing tournament with prizes, has engaged 1,085 volunteers in 22 events, from the Florida Panhandle to Key West and the Bahamas. Over that time, these participating boaters, anglers, paddlers, and beachcombers have helped Ocean Aid 360 find and remove over 162,000 pounds of marine debris, including 2,591 derelict crab and lobster traps left abandoned during seasonal closures.

Florida is unique as the only state that borders both the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. No matter where you are in the state, you’re never more than 60 miles from the nearest body of water. It also means that the daily choices and activities of Florida’s residents and visitors can easily lead to debris in our coastal and marine habitats. Luckily, our partners across the region are kicking off the New Year with renewed energy and effort in leading marine debris removal and prevention projects to keep Florida’s waters healthy and free of debris.

The shallow, protected habitats of Delaware’s Inland Bays make for one of the most popular areas in the state for residents and tourists to try their hands at catching blue crabs. In boats or on the shore, recreational crabbers use all kinds of gear, from hand lines, to trot lines, to small traps with collapsible sides, and the Chesapeake style crab pot. Unfortunately, thousands of derelict crab pots have been left behind or lost, and are littered beneath the surface of the Inland Bays. The University of Delaware and Delaware Sea Grant, with funding from the NOAA Marine Debris Program, worked to address the issue by teaming up with recreational crabbers to remove derelict pots.

Crabbing is a popular recreational activity and a valuable commercial industry in South Carolina. Traps become derelict when they are displaced or when their marking buoys are lost from events such as boat strikes, extreme weather, or equipment malfunction. The true number and distribution of derelict crab traps in coastal South Carolina remains unknown. A project led by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources aims to improve our understanding of the impact of derelict fishing gear in South Carolina by mapping intertidal and subtidal areas of four estuaries.

The NOAA Marine Debris Program’s Pacific Islands Region of American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Hawai‘i spans across 5,239,989 square miles, and is our largest region. Despite their geographic isolation, these island communities are not isolated from the issue of marine debris. Island communities face unique challenges around managing marine debris, including limited land mass, waste infrastructure, and currents that carry debris from afar. Five marine debris prevention and removal projects supported by the NOAA Marine Debris Program are in progress in the Pacific Islands Region. These small communities are leading the way with large efforts.

Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) recently completed a marine debris removal project with the support of a Fishing for Energy grant, a partnership between the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the NOAA Marine Debris Program, Covanta, and Schnitzer Steel. Florida's DEP and their partners worked to locate and remove derelict fishing gear and other marine debris from four artificial reefs in the Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserves on the southwest coast of Florida.

Native Americans have lived on these lands since time immemorial. Their roots are deeply embedded in the land, waters, and genealogy of this place. During National Native American Heritage Month we celebrate the countless contributions of Native peoples, their important history, present perseverance, and future. The NOAA Marine Debris Program is proud to work with indigenous communities in stewardship efforts that help to understand and reduce the impacts of marine debris. One such project, with the Makah Tribe, focused on the removal of derelict fishing gear within the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, along the northwest corner of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State and the Makah Tribe’s Usual and Accustomed Fishing Area.

The delicate and extraordinary environment of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument (monument) receives an estimated 52 metric tons of derelict fishing gear every year from commercial fisheries all over the Pacific. Derelict fishing gear refers to nets, lines, pots, traps, and other fishing equipment that has been lost, abandoned, or discarded in the marine environment. Most modern fishing gear is made of long-lasting and/or synthetic materials, such as plastic and metal, that can remain in the environment for many years. Derelict nets and ghost fishing are a haunting problem in the monument, and their removal is an important part of protecting and preserving the unique native ecosystem of Papahānaumokuākea.

Today, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a partner of the NOAA Marine Debris Program, announced eight grants totaling $412,000 to support activities in California, Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, and Oregon to reduce the amount of derelict fishing gear in the marine environment. The grantees will leverage an additional $247,000 in matching contributions, with a total of $659,000 dedicated for this work that is anticipated to prevent more than 845,000 pounds of fishing gear from potentially entering coastal waters.

Up to 20,000 pots from Delaware’s recreational blue crab fishery may sit on the murky bottom of Delaware’s Inland Bays, getting swept around by the currents and mired in the mud. There, they await rescue – inadvertently scraping across the bottom, getting in the way of boats, and continuing to ghost fish by trapping crabs, fish, and other wildlife. A new project, led by the University of Delaware and Delaware Sea Grant, is using side-scan and live sonar to identify and recover derelict crab pots lost and abandoned in Delaware’s Indian River Bay.