"Ghost pots" haunt Maryland waters, too
There apparently is an answer - or at least an estimate - of how many derelict crab pots there are bumping around the bottom of Maryland's portion of the Chesapeake Bay.
A few days ago, I posted here about the results of an effort last winter by Virginia watermen to retrieve lost aka "ghost" pots in their waters. They pulled up more than 8,600. At the time, I wondered how many more there might be north of the Old Dominion, still catching and killing crabs and other fish and animals in Maryland waters.
Kim Couranz of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Chesapeake Bay office reports that her people have been hard at work studying the impact of ghost pots in Maryland's portion of the bay. A couple years back, in collaboration with the state Department of Natural Resources, they did a survey and determined there are about 42,000 "ghost" pots loose in Maryland waters.
Next question is, what if anything is to be done about them?
in crabs
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I report on the environment and Chesapeake Bay. A native of West Virginia, I have focused mainly on Maryland's environment since moving here in 1983. Along the way, I've crewed aboard a skipjack in the bay, canoed under city streets up the Jones Fall from the Inner Harbor, and gone deep underground in a western Maryland coal mine. Recently, I have been covering the growth and development transforming the landscape. I love seafood, rambles in the country and good stories. I hope to share some here.
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How about: we ask VA how much it cost them to remove their and how they went about it and do it ourselves?
More often than not, Marylanders rag on Virginians for not taking bay issues seriously. This time, they beat us to the punch.
Posted by: bryanintimonium | May 15, 2009 2:16 PM
How are ghost pots removed once they are located? 42,000 of them at the bottom of the Bay is quite a lot.
I imagine it would be a very costly program.
Posted by: bdc | May 17, 2009 12:32 AM
With no bait these abandoned pots won't be catching or killing any crabs or fish. What will happen is that in a few years the salt water will convert them to powdered rust.
Posted by: Martin | May 17, 2009 9:19 AM
BS on the above.
The critters that get in the pot, die and become the bait for the next victim. I pulled up a pot last summer that washed away and it had 10 crabs, 6 terrapins and four fish in it. 2 of the fish were alive, most of the crabs. All the terrapins were dead and the dead fish and crabs were being eaten by the survivors.
Posted by: Dooright | May 21, 2009 11:02 AM