that crab pot you lost? it's still catching crabs.

Yikes. We've got a big problem of lost crab pots that might be affecting the entire fishery itself, not to mention the other critters out there in the water. Thanks to Randy, the Delaware Center for Inland Bays, and our legendary volunteers for helping out with this one.
Grammar justification for less/fewer at 0:28 bit.ly/3SqACnh
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Instagram: / seasaturated
portfolio site + prints: www.seasaturated.com
Want to shoot? Email grant(at)seasaturated.com
Hey hey! I'm Grant, and I am a surfer/scientist currently in coastal Delaware. I'm sharing with you some of my life and some of my thoughts to bring exploration, conservation, and education to those who can't experience it everyday. Right now, I'm studying beaches and the seafloor at work and taking full advantage of them otherwise, but in the future I want to double down on showing you the beauty of all the blue water that's out there. Hope to see you in, on, or under the water sometime soon 🌊

[@mrfish49el]

I didn't notice any degradable panels on any of those crab pots. In Florida that's part of a regulation crab pot so if you lose one the panel will eventually rot out giving everything an escape route.

[@seasaturated]

I didn't know that about FL...interesting. Any idea of how long it takes to degrade? In DE at least the only mandatory part is a bycatch reduction device (BRD) which prevents terrapins from getting in above a certain size (it's the orange square plastic piece over the opening). And they're virtually not enforced. If you come in with an out of state pot w/o BRD nobody bats an eye. Thanks for the info!

[@philmann3476]

True here in the Pacific Northwest as well. All pots sold commercially have an openable panel held closed by biodegradable string or something similar, which after being soaked continuously degrades, opening the panel and allowing any crabs to escape. It's not a big deal or controversial, everyone uses them and they seem to work. (And you simply replace them as they get worn.) Surprised Delaware doesn't have something similar.

[@brandonosprey7457]

Crab pots melt to nothing all on their own. We have to attach sacrificial metals to them and change them every couple months or the trap will degrade extremely rapidly. Any "ghost pots" were very recently lost.

[@rickgotner7596]

Here in Alaska, we have to use rot cord (cotton string) since it'll rot off in less than 30 days. That's the law. I use it to tie one entire wall of the crab pot on so it falls away. Typically, when fished properly, the only "lost" pots were stolen by someone else.

[@seasaturated]

Commercial or recreational? Trying to get our state to consider incorporating this on the door

[@rickgotner7596]

@@seasaturated Both commercial and sport fishing. An escapement mechanism is required to eliminate ghost fishing. Escapement rings are also mandated, just a little smaller than legal crab size, to let the little ones go. And here in Alaska, only male crab of the primary species may be retained. (King, Snow and Dungeness crab.)

[@WilEngelen]

Wow, what a good job you're doing here. Definitely a like and a regular visitor. The amount you have spotted and pulled out is truly unimaginable. Thanks for clearing it out and protecting all aquatic life.

[@seasaturated]

thanks Wil! unfortunately we've only actually pulled out a few hundred pots, which is a small drop in the bucket. But the work continues 💪🏼 thanks for the sub :)

[@WilEngelen]

@@seasaturated Although there is an escape option, the pots remain on the bottom. And as I saw in this episode, there are a few thousand at the bottom. So water pollution remains a problem. The best solution is therefore to remove the pots. Can't it be fished up with large fishing magnets? There are magnets with a pulling force of 1600 kilos.

[@seasaturated]

@@WilEngelen yep totally - the amount of marine debris these are creating is pretty brutal. I may be wrong here, but I believe some folks have tried magnets, but the issue we face is that these pots are so sucked into the mud and have such a small amount of actual metal on them that magnets don't really even make them budge. for comparison we can bend a steel rebar grappling hook on them before they budge, and our usual approach is to cleat off a grappling hook, put the boat in gear and let the boat do the work of un-suctioning them. obviously the other question is "why don't we just go out with a big dredge?"...we are trying to do the least possible damage to the benthic habitat as we can (including protecting our fragile little population of seagrass that is attempting to keep our bays healthy). At the moment, just a lot of hard work unfortunately!

[@WilEngelen]

@@seasaturated I saw a crab cage made of steel wire with a coating on Amazon. About $35 each. Where the exit links were wire that rot in water if the crab cage is not taken out of the water. This can be lifted without any problems with a magnet with a pulling force of 1000 kilos. Better is 1600 kilos. Even if the cage is sucked into the mud. I have seen half a car pulled out of the mud with 2 magnets. And it was stuck in the mud. Who knows of an obligation for all crab cages made of coated steel wire? I try to think along in a scientific way. I would like to help you, but the flight costs from the Netherlands to America are too expensive for me.

[@seymourwrasse3321]

sounds like magnet fishing season is always open

[@bren8927]

awesome video this is actually really insightful definetly a big problem

[@MinistryOfMagic_DoM]

This is a really good quality video. I am shocked this channel is only at 107 subscribers.

[@seasaturated]

thank you! growing slowly

[@judd0112]

They are supposed to have an escape for crabs& whatever and biodegradable links so it falls apart. And their name on the plate.

[@seasaturated]

not recreationally in DE unfortunately! Cull rings are only recommended, and you're only required to have your info on the buoy (most people don't do this anyway).

[@neillee3793]

Yep gotta use the "bio" = biodegradable cord to allow for escape thru entry/exits!

[@zachawesomes6614]

Thank you for this info.

[@seasaturated]

thanks for watching!

[@bosshoss1623]

Good video, had no idea this was an issue.

[@seasaturated]

thanks boss 😉

[@Easttr090]

You've won a subscriber Grant, love the ecological+ work you're doing. What was the name of the song at 8 mins? Cheers!

[@seasaturated]

Thanks 😊 that whole montage is Get Away by Surf Club

[@judd0112]

Oh and in New England pots everywhere. Not just one either. 3,4,6 pot trawl. So u see a lobster pot it’s not just one trap. I know them they will drop them anywhere they want and if you drop yours in their “spot” you won’t find them again. Very territorial. And big guys do it right with proper traps and the latest stuff. It’s the small guys who do follow the basics

[@seasaturated]

Thanks for watching! I've definitely heard that about NE especially lobster pots. This was specifically recreational crabbing in DE which doesn't require a name plate or biodegradable link on the door unfortunately. Wild West out here...I'd love to know what's causing these pots to go derelict here whether it's just unexperienced people tying a bad knot, prop strikes, intentional vs unintentional like you mentioned

[@eyespliced]

I though crab traps had a secondary larger escape "hatch" that was biodegradable and would effectively turn lost traps into more habitat because nothing could get caught in them if they were lost.

[@seasaturated]

see the other comment but it's definitely state by state. unfortunately what we've seen in DE is mostly pots that are clearly old w/ growth but are still fishing. I like the biodegradable hatch a lot!

[@ocramer205]

how do I get onto a mailing list for volunteer opportunities?

[@seasaturated]

Thanks for asking! We ended up not doing a second cleanup this off season, but we will be late this year. I will put out an announcement on here probably early fall to advertise the volunteer spots. Cheers

[@TY-dq2px]

Crabs just leave pot when bait gone. Then after a week pot in water the mesh fouls out and stinks of marine growth which crabs hate. Also mesh quality is poor nowadays and pot will rot soon enough

[@seasaturated]

I think you may be thinking of traps? The whole point of the pots is that the crabs can't get out :) the pots we've seen in DE are in a pretty low energy environment, so most of the time they're completely intact with critters (alive and dead) inside.

[@TY-dq2px]

@seasaturated the crabs do get out when bait expires. I own 500 commercial pots and tired of being blamed for this problem. The weekenders need fined where they won't abandon pots whether in back bay, Delaware bay, Delaware River, or creeks..

[@user-ez2tq4vi8f]

maybe the biggest unspoken problem in this video is the host's chin p.s. the stacked up crab pot special effect was good :)

[@seasaturated]

lol glad you enjoyed

[@bren8927]

and now im rick rolled

[@seasaturated]

lollllll let the others enjoy the grammar lesson themselves

[@coolhand6669]

hey guys great video let me put this out to you you need to have a couple weekends get together so everybody everybody in the town that likes crab and then you bring the boats and their hooks and they need to go drag Hooks and start picking out all the crab pots the old ones and the other thing is you need to start helping helping people you need to get a weekend like a Saturday and have Urban bring their crab pots and put release relief twine on their pots so all the animals can escape that's for one thing the other thing is people need to put better buoys and better connection gear on their pots cuz that's the other problem people don't connect their ropes properly to the pots and or have a a buoy that doesn't float right. My guess is if you got a 100 boats together you can catch a hell of a lot of old crap traps a lot of

[@seasaturated]

thanks! great suggestions here - we're definitely trying to scale up our operation, but the reason we don't just have everyone come out and grapple is so that we can protect the rest of the habitat. CIB is trying to restore seagrass etc in the bays, so we have to be super targeted with sonar instead of just grappling everywhere. We'd love to have you out next year! I'll share info as I get it.