October 13, 2026 — An Easton-based environmental consulting firm has won federal money to pull abandoned crab pots, known as “ghost pots,” out of the Chesapeake Bay, and local watermen will be paid to do the retrieval.
According to the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences, Rauch Inc. received $126,000 to recruit commercial watermen to recover derelict crab traps in Talbot County waters, including around Tilghman Island. The money comes through a NOAA subaward through the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
Those areas were chosen based on a 2016 assessment by NOAA’s Marine Debris Program and the institute.The assessment predicts high levels of derelict pots off of Tilghman Island.