A team of ghost-busters is targeting derelict crab traps in Tampa to obliterate derelict crab traps that continue to capture wildlife long after they’ve been abandoned. “No one is checking on the traps, nobody is releasing the crabs, no one is taking the crabs. The traps are just sitting there trapping marine life without any way for it to escape,” said Serra Herndon, habitat restoration director for Tampa Bay Watch. “We call it ghost fishing.”
Experts from Tampa Bay Watch, Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Ocean Aid 360 and Coastal Impact Fund are leading a July 19 event that is open to volunteer boaters and shoreline walkers in two locations: Belleair Causeway and Fort De Soto Park boat ramp.
Tampa Bay Watch hosted its first ghost trap tournament in 2011. Since then, Ocean Aid 360 has stepped in with traveling ghost trap tournaments in which 4,000 volunteers have removed nearly 600,000 pounds of marine debris, including 8,210 abandoned or derelict traps from the coastal waterways of Florida and the Caribbean, while releasing tens of thousands of marine species back to the water.
“Derelict and abandoned crab traps in the waters are a problem for several reasons: they continue to catch wildlife, killing not only the crabs but several other recreationally and commercially important species; they pose a navigational hazard to boaters; and they can cause damage to valuable and sensitive habitats such as seagrass or natural hardbottom environments,” said Ocean Aid 360’s Vice President Danielle Dawley. “Manatees, dolphins and sea turtles can also become entangled in the trap line, causing injury or death.”…