Article on lost traps & pots makes a guy think.

[potbuilder]

Wonder how much shrimp gear is littering the bottom of PWS

http://www.nationalfisherman.com/blo...derelict-traps

[Anythingalaska]

Ghost pots are truly tragic for shellfish. I have found/seen plenty of derelict/ghost pots diving. The last one I found had a dead flounder, dead crab, and two live rockfish inside it. I ripped open the mesh on the side of the pot so it would stop fishing. We found one last year up in a bay that had four legal Dungies in it. There are tens of thousands of ghost pots in the Bering Sea, and more added each year. It's estimated just in the Snow crab fishery, there are over 800 pots lost annually. In Chiniak Bay off Kodiak, there were almost 200 Ghost pots, which equated to a pot every 50 feet. Rediculous. This year I'm going north to dive in a few crab bays to locate and salvage ghoste dungy pots. Helping the environment, and perhaps making a couple bucks for myself!

[KenaiFly]

[QUOTE=potbuilder;1427473]Wonder how much shrimp gear is littering the bottom of PWS

FYI ... From ADFG numbers, the last 5 year average for PWS non-commercial lost pots is 751 per year. Steve is in the right business.

[mallardman]

Then there is this...... so steve has a good business for a while.


http://www.afsc.noaa.gov/quarterly/j...vrptsRACE2.htm

[Amigo Will]

Is this do to escape hatch not working,cotton thread not roting? The problem I see most is light pots with to much float moveing pots to deeper water with wave action untill float sinks.