"Ghost" crab traps are haunting the dwindling blue crab fishery.
By Rick Farren
If you’ve ever drifted across a grassflat anywhere along the Gulf Coast, or looked out over a mud flat at low tide, then you’ve seen your share of lost crab traps. Or you might have been one of those unfortunate enough to "center punch" an unmarked trap with your lower unit.
According to the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission (GSMFC), a million blue crab traps are set in Gulf inshore waters each year. More astounding, however, is that 250,000 of those traps are permanently separated from their owners every year! Once that happens, the unsightly traps simply remain in the water, where they continue to kill crabs and fish which enter them. That’s because in almost all coastal states traps are considered personal property and are thus protected by law, even traps that are obviously little more than litter. In fact, during coastal cleanup programs volunteers are told to ignore traps, even those that may have washed ashore.
Thanks to some good work by the GSMFC Derelict Trap Task Force during the past two-and-a-half years, some Gulf states are tackling the problem head on, and others are moving in that direction.
The current style of blue crab trap was introduced in Texas and Louisiana in 1948 and by 1950 had largely replaced earlier methods of trotline and trotline-drop nets. By the 1970s trap landings contributed to 98 percent or more of all Gulf coast landings. According to a GSMFC document, “Blue Crab Derelict Traps and Trap Removal Programs,” ". . . that proliferation of traps has resulted in user group conflicts and an increase in the problems associated with lost or discarded (derelict) traps . . ." The paper added that vinyl-coated wire introduced in the 1970s "resulted in more durable traps with a longer ghost fishing period. . ."
Traps end up lost for a number of reasons including storms and hurricanes, currents, loss of floats, negligence, and to some degree abandonment by crabbers who leave the fishery seasonally or permanently.
Annual trap loss per crabber among Gulf states ranges between 20 to 50 percent of the traps they use. Using a conservative estimate of 5,000 crabbers for the Gulf coast states, and an annual average loss of 25 percent, an astounding quarter-of-a-million traps or more are lost every single year in the Gulf.
Lost traps don’t simply stop fishing when the bait runs out, because the bait doesn’t necessarily run out. Whatever crabs are initially caught remain in the trap and eventually become bait themselves. The same goes with small fish that find their way into the trap but can’t find their way out. In fact, "ghost" trapping can continue until enough holes develop in the wire mesh of the deteriorating trap to allow for escape. Depending upon salinity, the fishing-life expectancy can average up to two years. Some states, including Texas and Florida, require biodegradable panels to decrease the amount of time the traps can ghost fish.
It should be no surprise that blue crabs are the number one species caught by ghost traps. One study found that traps in Louisiana killed an average of 25.8 crabs per trap per year. Annual mortalities in South Carolina were found to range from 20 to 60 crabs per trap, and in the
Chesapeake Bay, mortalities were estimated to be 7.7 crabs per trap for a three-month period.
Even if you allow for the killing of only 20 crabs per trap, 250,000 lost traps can kill 5 million crabs a year in addition to crabs killed in traps lost in previous years. Ghost traps in Louisiana waters alone could amount to a loss of between 4 to 10 million blue crabs per year.
Blue crabs aren’t the only species that die in ghost traps; seatrout, redfish, black drum, southern flounder and diamondback terrapins have all been noted as bycatch in traps.
Texas was the first state to create a large-scale, volunteer derelict trap removal program. "It’s been a real win-win program with great support from the community, commercial crabbers, and little old ladies who want to do something for the environment," said Hal Osburn, head of the coastal fisheries division of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPW).
The new program includes closing waters to crabbing for two weeks every winter. The crabbers pull their traps out, and after a grace period, derelict traps become fair game for anyone who wants to get muddy. Most of the traps, however, are recovered during a pre-planned, one-day event coordinated by the TPW. "It’s been really nice to see volunteers giving up their Saturday and bringing their own boats to help. A lot of folks bring their kids as a way to do something for the environment," said Osburn. Nearly 500 volunteers and 152 boats collected 3,858 traps in one day earlier this year. Last year the volunteers netted 8,070 traps. Bycatch figures aren’t in yet for the 2003 program, but the 2002 effort added an estimated 138,000 blue crabs to the resource on an annual basis. Traps also contained stone crabs, sheepshead, flounder, seatrout and diamondback terrapins.
A number of commercial crabbers also take part in the annual event. "The commercial industry doesn’t want to see the traps out there either,” said Art Morris, coordinator for the Texas derelict trap removal program. "Removing the traps improves the blue crab spawning stock and helps reduce waste of blue crabs and other bycatch species that are commercially important to other fishermen."
Because the Texas shoreline is more than 400 miles long, the TPW does an aerial survey the day before the event so volunteers can be directed to areas where abandoned traps are concentrated. Added Morris, more than 50 state and local government entities and organizations took part in the project. "One Boy Scout troop even developed a project about organizing people for the event." Funds to pay for the program were donated by CCA Texas, the FishAmerica Foundation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Additional donations of things like gloves, trucks and disposal assistance were donated by local companies.
Alabama launched a similar volunteer program in June 2002. Waters open to shrimping were closed to crabbing for seven days while the shrimpers disposed of traps caught in their nets. That was followed by a one-day closure where crabbers had to move their traps 100 yards offshore. Volunteers then moved in to remove remaining traps in the shallow water. Last March the one-day closure was repeated, only the traps were moved 500 yards offshore. In one day the volunteers collected approximately 1,020 traps.
