Dr. Kirk Havens of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science says a question regularly asked by community clean-up groups is whether they can remove derelict crab traps from the Chesapeake Bay.
Student-Developed App Will Help Public Remove Derelict Crab Traps
Dr. Kirk Havens of William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science says a question regularly asked by community clean-up groups is whether they can remove derelict crab traps from the Chesapeake Bay. Research shows these “pots” both harm marine life and cut into watermen profits.
To date, the answer has been no—in Virginia, it requires special permission to recover derelict traps, even if they are clearly abandoned or illegally present during the fishery off-season. Scientists estimate that baywide, tens of thousands of traps are lost or abandoned each year.
Now, funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Covanta, and NOAA’s Marine Debris Program will allow Havens and colleagues to address the derelict-trap issue by working with local high school students to develop a “Crab Trap App” for the cell phones of trained and authorized users. The project will also re-animate an earlier program that paid watermen to find and remove derelict traps from crabbing “hot spots."
Read more at Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Photo: A recovered derelict crab pot filled with blue crabs and whelks. Photo by Mark Pruitt.
