Ghost Fishing Crab Nets.

[Haji-Baba]

Ghost Fishing.

Reading a fishing note recently and this topic was mentioned.

Apparently lost pots can still be a danger to crabs and fish for a long time.

Because they dion't break down quickly they can remain in the water for ages and still catch fish and crabs continually.

Each new dead item becomes a bait for another.

I have lost three good big pots lately and having read this item I sincerly hope some one has pinched them.

They certainly did not drift away.

The ban on suicide nets seems to be all the more relevant.

Especially if they are lost.

(use rubber bullets please)

Have Fun Haji-Baba

[robersl]

with suicide net most people stay with them and work them less chance of them going walkies than a pot ( no bullets ) but i hooked up and old pot last season with my dillies net someone had sunk a pot and lost it was covered in barnicles ect full of weed and smallfish and shrimp and a mud crab had burrowed a hole in the opening amonst the weed and was sitting there when i brought it in the boat

shane

[Haji-Baba]

I take you point Robers about sitting on them. I agree, but some don't, and some are lost anyway, rope breaks etc.

I have never thought about it much but as some of us get a bit older we have more time to reflect and analyse some of the factors.

You must admit they are deadly.

In past years we used to use "double hoopers" for tangle nets, a floating cane hoop at the top and a sinking metal ring at the bottom.

You tied the net to both hoops and made the net slack by four tighter droppers between the hoops.

No top or bottom to the net, just a round drum type of thing.

When the old crab hit the loose net the slack got him every time.

Best was 13 sandies in one net.

For a brothers 21st. got 136 sandies one morning.

Couldn't do it now and wouldn't do it now.

You might say that is the reason crabs are scarce now, you may be on the mark but add in the trawlers, polution, 50 times more boats now, and everything else we do today.
Airports, canal estates, development, and just the numbers of people who want fresh seafood.
We all contribute in some way good or bad.

Have Fun Haji-Baba

[CHAPPY]

Which brings us to the next question. When is an abandoned or lost pot considered lost? If you find a derelict pot, can you be had for touching it? Same with pots with no floats. Was it lost or was it sunk on GPS marks without a float?

I have beached several decrepid and decayed pots but still wondered about the law.

All of my pots now carry 2 floats, are painted flouro pink,and have plenty of sturdy rope attached. So havent lost 1 in 5 years but I can tell you the share-farmers are savage.

When is a pot salvagable legally/


Chappy
Chappy

[Haji-Baba]

Hi! Chappy.

Just recently while anchored near the ledge in the Bribie Passage a crabpot drifted slowly by. Obviously a lost soul.
The float was undersized and not marked correctly.

Later on in the morning I came upon the same pot still drifting away.

After some hesitation I picked it up and then went back to the ramp intending to drop it near the ramp.

Anchored 100 meters from the ramp was a large sailing cat with a matching names on the hull and on the float.

I called out to the skipper and he informed me that he had set 4 pots and all had dissapeared.

I considered that to be quite stupid but said nothing.

In your neck of the woods I have hooked more than one sunken pot without rope or float. Each time they finished up on the bank.

Now I am considering putting my name and mobile number on my pots
(no address) in and endeavour to get them back if in fact they have drifted.

I suppose I have been crabbing Moreton Bay for fifty years and only this Xmas have I lost pots.

And I use big floats and generally crab in low tide flow areas.

Begins to make you wonder.

Have fun Haji-Baba