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Went out of Whittier this weekend. Had 5 pots in the water, 2 on one string and 3 on another. Plus 5 octopus traps on another (no luck by the way). Was pulling the string of 3 and the little Brutus Ace pot puller was really straining. Got the last of the pots out of the water, but not the anchor at the end of the line just yet, and blew the fuse on the puller. 30-amp fuse, melted to a blob of plastic. Puller motor super hot. Turns out that my pot line anchor had caught a string of 5 Ladner shrimp pots that someone had lost. No buoy, no anchor. Obviously been on the bottom for a long time. Some coral starting to grow on the line, some welds corroded through, bottom half of the bottom ring corroded/gone. Pots had inside them several starfish (dead), sea urchins, 1 crab (alive), 2 fish (alive), and in one pot was a live octopus and one without the arms. Before I noticed all the corrosion on the traps, I thought about keeping them. But then thought what might happen if I got stopped with 10 pots on board. In the end, I opened up/cut the netting and put them back overboard. I kept the line and put it in the dumpster at Whittier so nobody else would get hung up in it. So what would you have done??
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Don't know the laws, but sounds good to me. I'd be afraid to have any extra pots on board as well. Prob some good shrimp habitat. -
Sounds like you had 5 too many pots anyway...unless I am missinterpretting this...
"...Had 5 pots in the water, 2 on one string and 3 on another. Plus 5 octopus traps on another (no luck by the way)."Comment
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Octopus traps are just a piece of pipe with an end cap on one end. They are nothing like shrimp pots.Comment
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Given the corrosion and growth on the pots, I don't think you'd be in any danger of being cited for having too many pots on board. To make sure you were safe, you could also hail the Troopers on the radio and report your catch so that they know you're coming into port with excess pots on board. I don't think there's any harm in putting them back down as you did, but I also wouldn't be particularly worried about keeping such obviously old pots on board.Comment
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There was a long thread a few weeks ago about how many shrimp/octopus pots were legal. I was legal with what I had.Comment
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