By RHETT REGISTER
On a blustering winter day, 27 volunteers gathered at the north end of Roanoke Island and gazed out on an angry Albemarle Sound. They had come, dressed in waders and bundled against the cold weather, to remove marine debris from Fort Raleigh National Site ’ mho shoreline .
But, this was no ordinary coastal cleanup. Armed with shovels and beach carts, their target was the large number of deteriorating crab pots that weighed down marsh grass or lay, half buried, in the sandpaper .
“ You have to be prepared to get into the brambles and get into the weeds and wade out in the urine to go and bring these in, but it is a batch safer to have them off the beaches, ” says Peggy Birkemeier who participated in the attempt with her husband, Bill .
The pots are a type of marine debris referred to as abandoned ship fishing gear. Lines, pots, nets and other recreational or commercial reap equipment that have been lost or willfully abandoned or discarded are considered derelict. The volunteers were participants in the beginning attempt by North Carolina Sea Grant to identify raw programs and policies that will allow for more across-the-board and cost-efficient removal of abandoned fish gearing from coastlines and waterways.
In the days following the shoreline cleanup, area fishermen used their cognition of the region, and sonar-imaging techniques, to search for pots as separate of a N.C. Coastal Federation research visualize. The effort was funded by Sea Grant deoxyadenosine monophosphate well as by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA .
“ The on-water cleanup of derelict cancer pots during winter 2014 marked the first time persons other than N.C. Marine Patrol officers were allowed to remove the in-water debris, with commercial crabbers working aboard jurisprudence enforcement, ” says Sara Mirabilio, a Sea Grant fisheries specialist .
UNATTENDED POTS
North Carolina General Statute 113-268, an anti-theft law aimed at protecting fishermen, makes it illegal “ for any person to willfully steal, destroy or injure any buoys, markers, stakes, nets, pots or other devices legally set out in the open water of the State in connection with any fishing or fishery. ”
Until recently, the law has been interpreted to mean that only the person who set it, and the Marine Patrol, could remove fishing gear from waterways. During the 2014 no-potting period, the Marine Patrol agreed to issue a scientific collection and educational permit to the federation that allowed aid from a blue-ribbon group of commercial fishermen within a narrowly defined geographic sphere and time skeleton .
The effect of derelict fishing gear, one subset of marine debris, is varying and hard to quantify. Lost or abandoned fish gear can “ haunt fish ” or continue to trap organisms. A recent study of seven NOAA-funded projects published in the diary, Marine Pollution Bulletin, describes ghost fish as “ chronic stressors in many fisheries ” and calls for more research. Derelict gear besides is known to degrade habitat, impair navigation, present safety hazards and be unsightly .
Despite the lack of hard data, it is normally silent that bedraggled fishing gearing is having an shock on fisheries. To address the exit, in 2003, the country established a no-potting time period. During this time, which presently runs from Jan. 15 to Feb. 7 every year, North Carolina crabbers are legally required to remove all of their pots from the water. Marine Patrol removes any pots remaining in the water during the no-potting period .
It is a big job. In 2004, after Hurricane Isabel, Marine Patrol officers removed 7,708 pots from their northerly district, which includes the northern coast of the department of state from the Virginia state line to Ocracoke Island, and 8,343 pots coastwide. In 2013, officers removed 451 pots from the northern zone and 1,441 sum .
In general, the numeral of derelict crab pots collected every year has gone down. One reason for this may be that as the monetary value of pots has risen — a distinctive gripe toilet immediately costs between $ 40 and $ 50 — fishermen search more in businesslike to find lost gear and remember set pots during the no-potting period. Scrap metallic element prices besides have increased, which translates into fewer pots being “ disposed of ” in the water system .
The work to recover creaky crab pots is british labour party intensifier and fourth dimension consuming for the Marine Patrol and diverts them from other law-enforcement duties. But volunteers are happy to do the caper, given the opportunity. Despite a nor ’ east wind bearing down on the sphere, in under two hours, project volunteers, from high schoolers to retirees, had removed 620 pounds of solid godforsaken and 380 pounds of derelict fishing gear. Most of the catch was crab pots, from about a half-mile of shoreline .
“ It was blowing 30, and 30 degrees, ” says Ladd Bayliss, coastal preach with the federation and contribute research worker on the crab pot removal research undertaking. “ I couldn ’ metric ton envelop my head around it, but people love to pick up folderol. I think it ’ second that instantaneous gratification of doing something and being able to see the benefit. ”
In two days, nine boat crews — 17 commercial fishermen in total — alongside 14 N.C. Marine Patrol officers, removed 364 pots from approximately 200,000 acres of internal coastal waters including upper Pamlico Sound, Croatan Sound, Roanoke Sound, lower Currituck Sound, Albemarle Sound, Alligator River and Kitty Hawk Bay. Four of the nine crews were equipped with side-scan sonar units to search for rarely collected submerged, concealed pots, particularly in the vicinities of bridges where overhangs and obstructions make for increased gear loss .
Drew Whitfield, a local shrimper who helped with the campaign, frequently catches lost or abandoned crab pots. “ Anything to get them off the bottom is better for me, ” he says .
BUILDING CONNECTIONS
The data the fishermen collected indicate that “ hotspots ” exist where pot congregate. Bridge abutments, changes in submerged terrain and other features can collect pots as they move about in the shallow water due to tides, wind, storms and currents. By marking these spots, future efforts to find and remove the gear will be easier .
“ It ’ second very helpful. It gets the public spinal column involved in retrieving haunt pots and abandoned, or lost, gearing of all types, ” says Donovan Twyne, District One captain of the N.C. Marine Patrol. “ I think anytime you get the public involved in helping clean up, it precisely makes things a wholly draw better for the resource. ”
Pots that were removed were in all states of deterioration, from scraps of interlock, to complete pots with little foul. Those that could be salvaged were rendered unable to capture fish and crab louse, and set aside for artificial witwatersrand construction .
Researchers and fishermen have long known that crab pots make good substrate for oysters. approximately 90 of the salvage pots from 2014 will be dipped in mortar and used as artificial substrate for oyster larval colony and growth in a future phase of the project. Look for an approaching article in Coastwatch about the work of Joel Fodrie at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ’ s Institute of Marine Sciences and others who use gripe pots to assist with oyster restoration .
While the amount of abandoned ship fish gearing that was removed was crucial, for Bayliss, the biggest benefit is the increase trust that developed among fishermen, the Marine Patrol and volunteers. “ Always in the back of my mind, it was more of a capability, team-building plan for strengthening relationships between nonprofits, scientists, and most importantly, law enforcement and the fishermen that have to follow the regulations. ”
A moment phase of collection will take invest during the no-potting period in January 2015. To learn more about the campaign, inflict www.nccoast.org.
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OTHER EFFORTS
In initial pursuits to develop avenues for improved removal of abandoned fish gear, Sea Grant elongation specialists Sara Mirabilio, Gloria Putnam and Lisa Schiavinato worked collaboratively with stakeholders to create a share agreement of the creaky fishing gear management issues in North Carolina. The group sought to identify possible changes in regulations, programs or policies .
In leap 2013, the team met in Beaufort County with stakeholders — including representatives from the commercial fishing industry, the federation, Marine Patrol, N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership, Coastal Plain Conservation Group, and NOAA Beaufort Lab — to gather information about derelict fishing gear in North Carolina .
“ There is little data on the sum and type of lost or abandoned fishing gearing in North Carolina, and it is difficult to gather this information, ” Mirabilio says. “ foster complicating stewardship efforts is miss of a North Carolina jurisprudence or regulation that immediately defines derelict fish gear, or provisions in North Carolina statutes or regulations that provide clear agency for the removal of it. ”
At the N.C. Marine Debris Symposium in Sneads Ferry in September, Putnam presented the team ’ south findings. She described recommendations developed to improve abandoned ship fishing gear management in the state and increase citizen engagement .
The first gear involves reducing gear personnel casualty by promoting collaborative research into pot purpose .
“ At our stakeholder meeting, a crabber noted that he had been playing about with a half buoy alternatively of a full buoy on his crab pots to see if they would prevent extreme movement during storms, ” Putnam says .
“ If we connected him and early commercial fishermen with researchers at universities, we possibly could revise the design of some gear to lessen personnel casualty and have the designs be satisfactory to fishermen. ”
The team besides calls for a clear definition of abandoned fishing gear that more easily enables citizens to discern whether gear is derelict. They besides suggest the state re-examine how fishing gear is marked to identify possession .
Putnam presented novel ways that derelict fishing gear can be tracked and located. She mentioned side-scan sonar, angstrom well as digital trailing and mobile report applications, such as the Marine Debris Tracker developed by the University of Georgia and available at www.marinedebris.engr.uga.edu .
The team besides recommends a new outreach campaign to encourage more commercial fishermen to report their own lost gearing, and aid users of coastal waters to understand what constitutes abandoned ship fish gear and report sightings .
“ If we are able to address some of these issues and get more citizens involved, we will promote nautical stewardship, receive economic returns — in contribution by reducing Marine Patrol ’ s need to address the issue — and improve habitats, ” Putnam says .
To learn more about abandoned fish gear, visit the North Carolina Sea Grant web site at www.ncseagrant.org. Or contact Sara Mirabilio at saram @ csi.northcarolina.edu .
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RECYCLING MONOFILAMENT, PROTECTING WILDLIFE
Crab pots are only one form of derelict fish gear. other types include nets, fishing harness and line .
After witnessing the end of a dolphin calf that had become entangled in monofilament fish line, Keith Rittmaster of the N.C. Maritime Museum and Victoria Thayer of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries started the N.C. Monofilament Recovery and Recycling Program .
Based on a similar program in Florida, Rittmaster and Thayer, with colleagues and volunteers, build, install and maintain approximately 50 four-foot tall, 6-inch diameter PVC receptacles. The containers can be found at bait-and-tackle shops, boat ramps, marinas, fishing piers, and other fish and boating locations .
“ Please don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate leave your pipeline behind, and pick up any discard line that you find, ” notes Rittmaster. “ And encourage others to do the same. ”
Since 2007, the program has collected approximately 1,100 miles of monofilament fishing line. After removing hooks, leaders and other rigging, they send it to a fish channel manufacturer in Iowa that turns it into other formative products, such as tackle boxes.
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Funds for the first step arrive from the N.C. Maritime Museum “ Protect Wild Dolphins ” especial license plate and from donations. To learn more, go to www.capelookoutstudies.org and look under Programs .
This article was published in the Holiday 2014 consequence of Coastwatch .
For contact information and reprint requests, visit ncseagrant.ncsu.edu/coastwatch/contact/ .
