Next month, VIMS will send a survey to more than 1,000 licensed hard pot crabbers in the state seeking feedback about their experiences with derelict crab pots, also commonly known as “ghost” pots.
VIMS says studies show that crabbers may lose up to a fifth of their pots— usually to foul weather or boat propellers— every year, and those lost pots can cause ecological and economic impacts. The Institute is hoping the survey will shed light on how watermen view the problem, and help identify ways to reduce the number of pots lingering in Bay waters.
The Derelict Blue Crab Pot Survey was created by VIMS graduate student and Virginia Sea Grant graduate research fellow Jim DelBene, who says it’s crucial that commercial watermen in Virginia be able to share their opinions so that regulators can try to solve the problem in the most effective way. “Successful mitigation strategies require buy-in from the crabbers,” DelBene says, “so it’s essential to hear from them.”
Here’s the real story. Derelict pots are, 95% of the time, not the fault of professional waterman. In fact, every waterman I know checks out and picks up derelict pots. The ghost pot problem is mainly caused by recreational fishers, many of them with very expensive homes along the coast and creeks. If you want to educate someone about derelict fishing gear, you need to start with recreational fisherman.
It’s odd you would have to say this to so-called scientists—but not really surprising either.
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I find these data hard to accept. 95% of the problem is with recreational fishermen. 95 out of 100 abandoned pots are from recreational. I doubt there are 95 recreational pots in the water at any one time. Commercial watermen don’t want recreational people on the water. They seem to think they have a divine right. I had to move my boat from the marina. Things would mysteriously ‘go missing’.
There are plenty of them, every summer I see two or three just on our town beach.
I’ve got 2 boats. I sure hate it when my prop hits a ghost pot and it dents the prop or gets hung up on it and spins around n round n round.
I’ve been out plenty of times at low water and found ghost pots. They are loaded with dead critters that waste our natural resources. I can’t see any positive to leaving these pots out there.
Crabbers pay over $30 for a “ready to go” pot. They aren’t leaving them out there on purpose.
I see no problem w/VIMS asking crabbers for input. I do see a problem if VIMS wants to blame the problem on them, or if they expect the crabbers to clean ’em up for nothing, or drag them to a recycling or waste collection point. All that costs $. I see no reason why crabbers should bear the brunt of this cleanup. With their pot losses, they already are.
So I’d like to see crabbers input. They are the pros out there. Let’s see if the two partys can find a good solution. If we try nothing we will for sure gain nothing.