My mind is unable to grasp, in any meaningful way, how much
death and destruction was caused by fishing nets that were lost and
abandoned through the years.
Filmed in 2007, this KCTS-9
video describes the problem of ghost nets and a project that would
eventually remove nearly 6,000 nets.
Nearly 6,000 of these so-called “ghost nets” have been pulled
from the waters of Puget Sound over the past 17 years. Until
removed, they keep on catching fish, crabs and many more animals to
one degree or another.
We can support responsible fishing, but those of us who care
about Puget Sound must never again allow lost nets to be forgotten,
as if “out of sight, out of mind” ever worked for anyone.
The latest concern, as I reported last month in the Encyclopedia of
Puget Sound, is that 200 or more ghost nets are still lurking
at depths below 100 feet, which is the level considered safe to
operate by divers with normal scuba gear. Remotely operated
vehicles (unmanned submarines) are being developed to go after nets
remaining in deep water, where they are killing crabs and many
other deep-water species — including rockfish, some of which are
listed under the Endangered Species Act.
This is a campaign slogan going out to Puget Sound crabbers. It
is a positive message, built upon the goals of:
Helping people avoid losing their crab pots,
Reducing the number of crabs that go to waste, and
Increasing the number of crabs available for harvest.
We’ve talked about the problems of lost crab pots that keep on
catching crabs on the bottom of Puget Sound. About 12,000 crab pots
are lost each year in Puget Sound, killing an estimated 178,000
legal-sized Dungeness crabs that would otherwise be served up for
dinner. In January, I described some simple alterations to crab
pots that allow crabs to escape when a pot gets lost. See
Water Ways, Jan. 28.
Even more basic, however, are proven techniques that help people
select equipment and place their crab pots so they don’t get
damaged or lost in the first place.
The Northwest Straits Initiative, authorized by Congress in
1998, has been working on the problem of derelict gear for years,
including the
retrieval of thousands of lost nets and crab pots from Puget
Sound. When it came to enlisting the public’s help in prevention,
campaign organizers realized that everyone was on the same side,
said Jason Morgan of the nonprofit Northwest Straits
Foundation.
“We previously focused on the doom and gloom of it, talking
about so many crabs killed each year,” Jason told me.
Working with sociologists, campaign organizers realized that
“the better way to reach people is not to talk about dead crabs but
to say we want you to catch more crabs and keep your crab
pots.”
The Northwest Straits Foundation has developed a three-year plan
of action, including education for the public; improved
communication among crabbers, vessel operators and government
officials; and recommendations for improving regulations.
The plan was put together by a working group of 35 people
involved in various aspects of crab harvesting, boat traffic and
resource protection.
“It was a great collaborative process,” Jason said. “There was
no butting of heads or anything like that.”
“Crab pots are lost for a variety of reasons. Causes for loss
generally fall into three categories:
Vessel interaction (both recreational and commercial
vessels);
Improperly configured gear, including improperly tied knots;
and
Improperly placed gear.
“All these categories usually include a degree of user error,
either on the part of the crabber, or on the part of the boater or
vessel operator.”
The plan includes at least 25 strategies for reducing conflicts
between vessel traffic and crab pots, reducing tampering and
sabotage, improving crabbing equipment and pot configuration, and
removing abandoned crab pots during non-crabbing days.
One of the interesting ideas is to require online registration
for recreational crab endorsements on fishing licenses. Applicants
would take a short quiz to make sure they know the rules.
Rich Childers, shellfish manager for Washington Department of
Fish and Wildlife, said the various regulatory proposals in the
plan are under advisement. One idea, which has proven effective, is
to reduce the size of allowable escape cord (“rot cord”) that opens
an escape hatch for the crabs to get out. Studies have shown that
approved escape cord takes between 30 and 148 days to disintegrate,
and most people use larger cord to last longer.
The time that crabs are trapped and dying on the bottom could be
reduced if the rules were changed to require smaller cord. Any rule
changes would include a grace period, Childers said, and it would
be nice if crabbers could obtain the smaller cord for free.
With crab season underway, a series of videos on the theme
“Catch more crab!” couldn’t come at a better time:
The video below provides basic information for first-time
crabbers. Meanwhile, outdoors writer Mark Yuasa offered a nice
instructional story last week in the
Seattle Times.
To check on crab seasons and legal requirements, visits the
Recreational
Crab Fishing webpage of the Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
A simple alteration to recreational crab pots could save
thousands of crabs from going to waste each year, all because crabs
are unable to escape from lost crab pots that keep on working,
according to a new study.
Paul Rudell of Natural
Resources Consultants, left, and Jason Morgan of Northwest Straits
Foundation place crabs into a trap to test the escape system.
Photo: Northwest Straits Foundation
The Crab Pot Escapement
Study, commissioned by the Northwest Straits Foundation, is the
first to measure how well crabs use the escape routes provided in
the design of every crab pot sold in Washington state.
The findings were somewhat of a surprise, according to Jason
Morgan of the Northwest Straits Foundation. Jason told me that he
is eager to get the information out to recreational crabbers, who
could voluntarily take steps to reduce crab mortality. The findings
might even lead to revised regulations for crab pots.
Of course, the best thing that crabbers can do is to avoid
losing their pots in the first place. For tips, check out the
brochure from the Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife (PDF 2.9 mb) or the Northwest
Straits website. About 12,000 crab pots are lost each year in
Puget Sound, representing the wasteful deaths of nearly 200,000
crabs, according to a revised estimate derived from the new
study.
The study, in partnership with Natural Resources Consultants,
placed live Dungeness crabs into six common types of crab pots,
using 13 various configurations. After the seventh day, the
biodegradable escape cord (“rot cord”) was severed to provide an
opening through which the crabs could escape — at least in theory.
The researchers then measured the time it took for the crabs to get
out, if they could.
An escape ring tied with escape
cord allows crabs a safe exit.
Photo: Northwest Straits Foundation
One thing the researchers learned was that crab pots with hinged
doors tended to keep the crabs trapped, especially when the door
was located away from the edge of the pot. The doors simply stayed
closed after the escape cord broke free.
A modification of the doors with a bungee cord significantly
increased the number of crabs that could escape. The doors were
modified to spring open when the escape cord broke.
The best configuration of all involved the use of escape rings —
a circular opening at least 4.25 inches across. These rings are
required by law in all crab pots to allow females and under-sized
males to get away before the pot is brought to the surface or in
the event that it becomes derelict.
Many crab pots sold today tie the rings into the crab pot with
escape cord. When the cord breaks, the ring falls away to provide a
larger opening for the crabs to get out.
“It’s still a small opening for the crab to crawl out,” Jason
said. “We did not expect it to be effective at all, but it works
very well.”
In some crab pots, the required rings are welded into place on
the iron cage. It would be easy enough for people to cut the rings
out with a strong pair of wire cutters and then tie them back in
with escape cord, Jason said.
Manufacturers of crab pots have become interested in the study,
Jason told me, and he expects some will quickly convert to tying
the rings in place rather than welding them. The difference in
cost, if any, should be small, he said, and drawbacks seem
minimal.
Requiring this method of escape for future crab pots sold in
Washington could be another result of the study, but nothing is
proposed at this time, Jason said. The next round of studies is
likely to look at commercial crab pots, which are generally larger
but still require an escape route in case they become lost.
A related issue that needs attention is the escape cord, which
is made of cotton and designed to deteriorate in a reasonable
period of time when left in saltwater. Cords that last longer are
likely to cause more crabs to die. Studies have shown that approved
escape cord takes between 30 and 148 days to disintegrate, with
most people selecting larger cord that can last toward the longer
end of that range.
“That is certainly something that we are not happy with,” Jason
said. “We would like to see regulations that would require escape
cord to be smaller.”
A smaller cord would break sooner and allow more crabs to
survive when a crab pot is lost, though it would require crabbers
to change the cord more often. That would seem to be a small
inconvenience to avoid the kind of waste often seen in photos of
derelict crab pots filled with dead and dying crabs. Even longtime
experienced crabbers can lose a pot now and then, Jason said.
Northwest Straits Foundation is working on one or more videos to
help people see the benefits of providing escape for crabs and to
demonstrate how to modify their crab pots.
According to the study, the right modifications to crab pots
could allow 99 percent of the crabs to get free when a crab pot is
lost in the depths of Puget Sound.
More than 466,000 animals — from seals to sea birds to salmon to
crabs — were found dead during the retrieval of “ghost nets” over
the past 12 years by the Northwest Straits Foundation, which
celebrated a major milestone today. In recognizing the end of a
significant program, I’d like to add a little personal history.
Photo: Northwest Straits
Commission
The celebration in Everett marks the completion of the intense
effort to retrieve nets lost from fishing boats in less than 105
feet of water — because the vast majority of the nets have been
removed. Future roundups may be planned if more nets are found or
reported by commercial fishers, who are now required to report lost
gear.
The removal program has pulled out more than 5,660 derelict
fishing nets and more than 3,800 crab and shrimp pots blamed for
killing all those marine mammals, birds, fish and other creatures,
according to statistics kept by the organization.
Photo: Washington
Department of Fish and Wildlife
“Removing these nets restores marine habitat forever.” Joan
Drinkwin, interim director of the Northwest Straits Foundation,
said in a
news release. “Marine mammals like porpoises, diving birds, and
fish can now swim and dive in Puget Sound without the risk of being
entangled in these dangerous derelict nets.”
Northwest Straits Foundation stepped up and tackled the huge
ghost-net-removal project with the first grant from the Washington
Legislature in 2002. Through the years, other funding came from the
federal government, foundations, fishing groups, tribes,
corporations and private individuals. In a separate project, U.S.
Navy divers removed derelict nets from selected underwater
locations.
“Just about every agency and organization in Puget Sound that
works to protect and restore our marine waters has contributed to
this effort,” Drinkwin said. “We have many people to thank, so this
is a celebration not just of our work, but of collaboration and
pulling together to achieve great things.”
I’d like to add some personal notes, giving a bit of early
credit to Ray Frederick, who headed up the Kitsap Poggie Club in
2000, when Ray first called my attention to the ghost net
problem.
It was right after a
state initiative to ban non-Indian gillnets failed at the
ballot box, leaving many sport fishermen upset with what they
viewed as the indiscriminate killing of fish, including salmon
listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Ray called me and said gillnet fishing will continue, but
something should be done about the ghost nets. I think that was the
first time I had ever heard the term. Here’s how I began the first
of many stories (Kitsap
Sun, June 30, 1999) I would write about this subject:
“In the murky, undersea twilight of Puget Sound, scuba divers
occasionally come face to face with the tangled remains of rotting
fish. Nearly invisible in the dim light, long-lost fishing nets
continue to ensnare fish, birds, seals, crabs and other creatures
that happen along.
“Divers call these hidden traps ‘ghost nets.’
“”It’s a little eerie, seeing fish like that,’ said Steve
Fisher, an underwater photographer from Bremerton. ‘You can see
that something has been eating on them, and the fish are a pretty
good size — bigger than you would normally see.’”
I reported that a few net-retrieval operations had been
conducted since 1986, but state officials were warning against any
ad hoc operations following the death of a volunteer scuba diver,
who became tangled in fishing gear and ran out of air.
Ray got involved in a campaign to seek state and federal funding
to eliminate ghost nets. He wrote to Gov. Gary Locke and select
legislators. I located
one of Ray’s letters, which expressed frustration about the
lack of action to remove the derelict gear he knew was killing sea
life in Puget Sound.
State Sen, Karen Fraser, D-Lacey, who had been pushing for
funding, was joined by then-Rep. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge
Island, the late-Sen. Bob Oke, R-Port Orchard, and other
legislators to push through funding to develop new guidelines to
safely remove derelict gear. The Northwest Straits Commission,
which wanted to remove ghost nets in and around the San Juan
Islands, was chosen to conduct the study, which led to “Derelict
Fishing Gear Removal Guidelines” (PDF 2.3 mb).
Now that most of the nets have been removed in water less than
105 feet deep, the effort must turn to removing nets in deeper
water, where they are likely to snare threatened and endangered
rockfish species in Puget Sound.
NOAA Fisheries and the Washington Department of Fish and
Wildlife have listed abandoned nets as threats to rockfish and
recommend action. The most promising method of removal is remotely
operated vehicles. A report by
Natural Resources Consultants (PDF 1.4 mb) spells out the
various options.
