Document Type
Report
Department/Program
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Publication Date
10-7-2016
Abstract
Derelict fishing gear represents a major challenge to marine resource management: whether through deliberate abandonment or through accidental loss, derelict traps in particular have significant negative effects both economic (e.g., reduced fishery harvest from ghost fishing and gear competition that leads to the reduced efficiency of active gear) and ecological (e.g., degraded habitats and marine food webs and crab and bycatch mortality). Throughout the Chesapeake Bay, commercial harvest of hard-shelled blue crabs is a major fishing activity: every year sees the deployment of several hundred thousand blue crab traps (known locally as crab “pots”) across the Bay, of which an estimated 12-20% are lost each year. This report focuses on these derelict crab pots, drawing on many direct or remote observations and other data to quantify their abundance and spatial distribution across the Chesapeake Bay, and their resulting ecological and economic effects.
DOI
http://doi.org/10.21220/V54K5C
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Funding
Marine Debris Program, Office of Response and Restoration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Contract DG133E-10-CQ-0034, Task Order 007
Recommended Citation
Bilkovic, D. M., Slacum, H. W., Havens, K. J., Zaveta, D., Jeffrey, C. F., Scheld, A. M., Stanhope, D., Angstadt, K., & Evans, J. D. (2016) Ecological and Economic Effects of Derelict Fishing Gear in the Chesapeake Bay 2015/2016 Final Assessment Report. Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary. http://doi.org/10.21220/V54K5C
Included in
Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons, Marine Biology Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons
