More than 280 old crab traps removed from coastal waters

Volunteers for MDMR’s Derelict Crab Trap Cleanup have removed almost 19,000 traps since 1999

More than 280 old crab pots were removed from coastal waters as part of the 2013 Derelict Crap Trap Cleanup held over the weekend, the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources announced.

The 281 traps collected by the 32 volunteers will be recycled, the MDMR reported.The annual program included three drop-off sites along the coast, and the volunteers dropped off:

105 traps at Pascagoula Point.
145 pots at Ocean Springs Harbor.
31 traps at Bayou Caddy Marina.

Top contributing volunteers per site were Mark Kopszywa, who brought 60 traps to Ocean Springs Harbor; Wain Rogers with 37 traps dropped off at Pascagoula Point; and Ernie Zimmerman, who picked up 8 traps and delivered them to Bayou Caddy.

Volunteers also submitted data cards with information on where traps where recovered and what was in them. This information will be compiled by long-time program partners at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Lab.

“We can’t express enough how much we appreciate our volunteers and partners who have made this on-going project a success,” MDMR Shrimp and Crab Scientist Bill Richardson said. “Special thanks goes to Mississippi’s commercial and recreational crabbers, who not only removed all of their own active traps from marine waters in preparation for the cleanup but also as a group provided the highest number derelict traps to be recycled.”

The Mississippi Derelict Crab Trap Removal Program is funded through Tidelands Trust Fund. The program has removed and recycled 18,910 derelict crab traps from Mississippi’s waters since its inception in 1999.