New study shows how ghost gear hurting species at risk and N.S. lobster fishery

More than seven tonnesof lost or discarded fishing gear was found by researchers off the coast of southwestern Nova Scotia, pointing to the scale of the problem of "ghost gear" in one of the province's most important commercial fishing grounds.

The gear was found during searches ofLobster Fishing Areas33 and 34 afterfive boats took 60 trips during the summer and fall of last year. The gear was all located between 10 and 20 kilometres off the coast of Nova Scotia.

Two-thirds of the recovered gear was comprised of lobster traps, according to thenew study conducted by the School for Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University.The rest was made up of fishing rope, buoys anddragger cable.

Tony Walker is one of the authors of thestudy on "ghost gear," aterm used to describe a trap that continues to catch fish and lobster after it'sbeen abandoned. He saidwhen ghost gear isn'tremoved properly, it creates a cycle of "self-baiting" the gearwill continue to attract and trapfish and lobsteruntilthe gear itself deteriorates, sometimes up to four years.

"When the traps are lost, and especially if they're fresh,they still contain bait," he toldCBC Radio's Maritime Noon.

"Then they still continue to catch either the target species, in this case most of the time it's lobster, but they also continue to catch by-catch."

Species at risk

Walker said15 specieswere also found in the traps, sevenof them were ground fish. Five of these fish are species at risk. Walker said one of them was the historically over-fished Atlantic cod, and an emaciatedAtlantic wolf fish that was quickly released.

Lobster was the most commonly found species, Walker said. Of the 239 lobsters that were found in ghost traps, two-thirds were market-sized.

That loss of lobster to ghost gear has a real impact on fishermen's livelihoods, saidAlexa Goodman, a co-author of the study.Goodman said that lobster traps do have escape panelsthat are designed to fall off if gearis lost, but it doesn't always work.

"Even with atwo per cent trap loss annually, this can contribute to upwards of $176,000 in commercial losses annually," Goodman told CBC News.

For this reason, Goodman said most fishers do their best to collect lost gearto prevent lossesbut it's not always possible. They emphasizedcontinued action is needed on preventing ghost gear because species at risk are also affected.

"This is a cause for concern and something that should be continually monitored."