Workshops get pots ready for recreational crabbers
Looking to provide recreational crabbers the opportunity to get their pots in line with state code and best practices, Delaware Sea Grant has hosted several crab trap check workshops.
Brittany Haywood, a coastal ecology specialist for Delaware Sea Grant, oversees the events, which happen multiple times a year. There are about 20,000 lost pots in the Inland Bays, and the goal is to keep more pots from getting lost and to prevent ghost fishing when they do, she said.
A recent event started at 10 a.m. and there was a line beforehand. Haywood said there’s always a lot of interest. She came with enough supplies to outfit at least 25 pots. Sometimes there are enough supplies and sometimes there are not, she said.
Kelly McNinch recently moved to the area from western New York. The crab pot she was working on was left at the house she bought. She said she appreciated any help she could get.
“I’m new to crabbing and I figured I should learn to crab,” said McNinch.
Born and raised in Lewes, Doug Riniker is not new to crabbing. He was there to add the devices that reduce turtle bycatch in the traps, which he estimated to be 4 or 5 years old and “got used all the time.”
Riniker said he’s helped the Delaware Center for the Inland Bays in the past removing ghost traps. Showing a picture on his phone to prove his point, he said he wasn’t convinced that the turtle devices worked until he picked up a ghost trap and found nearly 20 terrapins.
Delaware Sea Grant offered a quick reference guide for recreational crabbing in Delaware:
• No more than two crab pots per owner
• Crab pots must be attached to an all-white buoy inscribed with the owner’s name and address or on a waterproof tag attached to the buoy
• A turtle bycatch device is required on each funnel entrance of a recreational crab pot
• Each pot must be physically monitored at least once every 72 hours
• Pots, traps or lines cannot be set in a designated channel.
State law does not require cull rings be installed, but staff on hand were recommending the installation of the rings on the sides of the traps’ holding areas. They allow the small, illegal crabs, turtles and fish to get out, said Haywood.
Delaware Sea Grant will offer one more crab pot check workshop at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 13, at James Farm Ecological Preserve, 30048 Cedar Neck Road, Ocean View. For more information, go to deseagrant.org/events-all, email Haywood at haywoobl@udel.edu or call 302-831-7005.