Eleven fishing captains from Key West and the Lower Keys spent three days on the water May 24-26 removing not fish, but abandoned or derelict traps, line and marine debris from local waters.
By the end of the second day, they had rid the ocean of 32,680 pounds of debris, including 694 abandoned traps. And those totals were still growing as of press time on Wednesday. One boat even rescued a sea turtle that had become stuck in a ghost trap and suffered an injured flipper. The team brought the turtle to shore and contacted the Turtle Hospital in Marathon.
Ghost traps are abandoned stone crab or lobster traps that are lost when their floating buoy marker is dislodged from the trap and the owner can no longer locate it due to a storm or a boat propeller cutting the trap line.
Such traps continue to catch and kill marine life despite no longer being checked by an angler (called ghost fishing). They endanger vessels and marine mammals that may tangle in the gear.
Animals die in the trap and then become the bait for the next batch of doomed fish.
Event organizers from the nonprofit Ocean Aid 360 were overwhelmed by the Keys’ response and haul during both events.
Capt. Neill Holland created the rodeos in 2017 with his partner Danielle Dawley. The events now take place throughout Florida and are funded through grants from NOAA’s Marine Debris Program, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the angler-led nonprofit Grassy Creek Foundation, which provides the funding to pay each participating charter captain $500 per four-hour day.
Before this week’s results, Ocean Aid 360’s Ghost Trap Rodeos have collected 45,000 pounds of marine debris and more than 750 ghost traps, said Holland and Dawley.
In addition to their daily pay, participating captains — being the competitive bunch that they are — compete for prizes donated by tackle and gear companies to see which boat brings in the biggest haul.
