PETIT DE GRAT: Members of the Richmond County Inshore Fishermen’s Association (RCIFA) have been catching much more than seafood in the waters that provide their livelihood.
In Nov. 2021, the organization conducted a ghost gear retrieval effort, one approved by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), to remove traps, buoys and other marine debris from the bays in Richmond County.
RCIFA released the findings earlier this month.
“We weren’t surprised; we know that there is a lot out there,” Christine Babin, RCIFA executive director, told The Reporter of the “garbage” they retrieved.
As indicated in a RCIFA release regarding the findings, because of steadily increasing fishing activity since 2020, St. Peter’s Bay and area was a key focus for the process.
Babin explained that participants were pleased with what they were able to recover, considering the process unfolded over only a 10-day period; not to mention the fishing vessels were working, as she described, “blindly.”
Four commercial vessels, each equipped with grapple drags, carried out the clean-up.
The captains and crews collected 626 traps, mostly wire ones in groups of four to six on strings.
Because there were no buoys or legal tags, locating their owners would be impossible. Commercial lobster harvesters are required to have DFO approved tags marked with Lobster Fishing Area 29.
The collected traps contained hundreds of pounds of dead lobster, crab, flounder and perch; even cod and wolf fish, which are endangered species.
“It threatens our livelihood,” Babin stressed of the debris uncovered, noting that the number of dead lobsters discovered outnumbered the live ones.
The RCIFA release indicated that everyone was “disheartened” by the destruction uncovered; countless lobsters died because they no escape vents.
Along with the traps, a “very large” net, buoys and other debris was retrieved.
“It was given to an artisan who recycled it,” Babin noted of the more than 1,000 pounds of rope collected.
RCIFA officials remind everyone that the commercial fishery has conservation measures in place for a reason; to ensure species are “caught in an environmentally and sustainable manner, which will allow for future fishing.”
If traps are not removed on the final day of the commercial season each year, lobster harvesters could face prosecution.
RCIFA noted that participants took photos of the retrieval process to chronicle how the abandoned traps and other debris wreak havoc with fish stocks and other marine life.
The group concluded its report summary with a reminder that “fishing debris as well as other garbage belong in landfills not in the ocean.”
RCIFA members launched another ghost gear retrieval on Jan.3, one that is scheduled to wrap up on Jan. 30.