Group retrieving ‘ghost’ lobster traps

BAR HARBOR  — The Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation’s two-day effort to recover lost lobster traps has yielded about 400 traps from Frenchman Bay.

Project Manager Laura Ludwig says a similar number of traps were recovered off Jonesport. Next week, the group plans to spend two days dragging and grappling for traps off Stonington.

The foundation is using a $200,000 grant to address the issue of so-called ghost traps. Those traps are lost on the ocean floor but continue to trap lobsters.

It’s estimated that hundreds of thousands of traps are lost on the ocean floor. Ludwig tells the Bangor Daily News that the goal is to give lobster industry officials and regulators a better sense of what effects the lost traps may have on the ocean environment.
 

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