The Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation has been busy this month. So have about 40 fishermen that we've enlisted to drag for lost traps on the ocean floor.
A diver friend, Steve Karpiak, took this photo when he was out doing surveys for another company, and he loaned it to us for demonstration of the situation -- these are "ghost" traps whose door panels have been opened, which effectively disables the trap from fishing.
The fishing vessels, up to ten in each area we're working, use a grapple to drag along the bottom and snag up the traps, or rope, or fishing cable, or batteries, or mooring blocks, or barge hausers . . . or any manner of debris. There are many different grapple designs, but most consist of heavy steel components (chain link, bar, rod, hooks) with prongs or spurs which catch onto the gear.
All of the gear and debris is brought in to a centralized wharf, and we process it all -- we keep the traps that look even remotely "fishable" and try to contact the owners to retrieve them, and we send all the scrap traps to the metal recycling company. Rope and other debris is sent to a waste-to-energy facility in Portland (ecoMaine), where it gets burned to create electricity. In fact, over 10 tons of waste have been sent there through this program so far.
The fishermen involved in the project are paid a small stipend to cover their fuel costs and not much else -- for the most part, they're committed to the idea of helping create a better habitat for their livelihoods, and they are often very curious about the science of the project.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources is partnering with us on this work, and their lobster scientists are looking at how the biodegradable escape panels are operating on these "ghost" traps. Each captain keeps a log of the trap's ID, age, by-catch and escape panel status, and all that data can be mined to tell a story. Through this small project, we should also be able to get a sense of what's out there for lost gear -- whether it's trash or treasure.
