With the announcement of federal government about the funding of crab pot recovery commercial fishermen will now get chance to recover their lost pots. It fact the crab pots litter the ocean floor, creating a deadly obstacle course of brightly colored plastic lines waving in the water, waiting to entangle migrating whales, turtles and sea lions, as well as passing boats.
Now even after the crab season is completed in August, fishermen will have a chance to get some back in what has been billed as the largest effort ever to recover lost crab pots. A federal stimulus grant of $700,000 will go to hiring fishermen to recover about 4,000 pots – squat cylinders made of stainless steel mesh, rubber and iron to help it sink to the bottom.
Cyreis Schmitt, marine policy project leader at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said that every year, 10 percent of the 150,000 pots Oregon crabbers put out are lost. He told that the total amounts to 15,000 newly lost pots every year – and a menacing threat. In the past five years, two whales have washed up dead on the Oregon Coast, entangled in crab pots and lines.
It is informed that the federal money will charter 10 boats and hire 48 people – including 31 fishermen who make winning bids – to join in the effort for two seasons. The stimulus project will be a start, but won’t eliminate the problem. It is opined that the stimulus money will help crabbers at a time when commercial fishermen have seen their businesses hit hard by unprecedented fishing restrictions, high fuel prices and the national economic downturn.
