State-wide Crab Trap Removal Program:

Texas Parks & Wildlife Department

Abandoned crab traps can create many problems. Research has been conducted in Louisiana on "ghost fishing" of abandoned traps (the continued fishing of a trap after it has been lost). This study indicated that on average, each abandoned trap results in the death of 26 blue crabs Callinectes sapidus per year. Previous estimates of the number of traps lost each year in Texas exceed 30,000 traps. This equates to 800,000 or more crabs potentially killed in abandoned traps each year in Texas. Studies have shown that abandoned traps are a major threat to diamondback terrapins, Malaclemys terrapin littoralis. This species is currently being considered for possible "Species of Concern" status under guidelines of the Endangered Species Act.

By catch of non-targeted species, such as red drum Sciaenops ocellatus and other recreational and/or commercially important fishes, have been documented as being trapped in abandoned traps. Removing abandoned crab traps can reduce user conflicts, such as recreational boaters hitting them with their boat’s propellers or shrimp fishermen catching them with their trawls. Furthermore removing abandoned traps enhances the aesthetic value of the bays and protects sensitive habitat, such as sea grasses.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department held its third derelict trap removal during a statewide closed crabbing season from February 20 to 29, 2004. All crab traps were required to be removed from the water during the closed season. Three hundred eleven volunteers removed 3,571 traps during the closed season.  The majority of the traps came from San Antonio and Galveston Bay.  The 2004 total was down from 2003 efforts that removed 3,838. 

During the first Texas derelict trap removal in 2002, volunteers removed 8,070 traps.  Since 2002, TPWD has documented the removal and collection of more than 12,000 traps along the coast.  “Twenty-two different marine species have been observed in these traps over the past two years, and many are important to recreational and commercial interests, including blue crabs, stone crabs and a variety of sportfish species."  Studies have shown that abandoned traps are a major threat to diamondback terrapins.  This species is currently being considered for possible ”Species of Concern” status under guidelines of the Endangered Species Act.

Derelict Trap Programs in the Southeast Region

A cooperative effort between the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Marine Resources Division, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission to remove derelict crab traps from coastal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  For more information regarding the Southeast region, please visit http://www.gsmfc.org/trapprograms2004.htm.