January 13, 2025 — The 20 commercial fishermen and women hired for this year’s Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project headed out Wednesday to begin collecting crab pots from the northeastern and central coasts.
In its 11th year, the North Carolina Coastal Federation coordinates the project, which aims to locate and remove displaced fishing gear that can pose a threat to boaters, wildlife and the fishing community.
The 2025 project is focusing on Marine Patrol Districts 1 and 2, the waters between the Virginia-North Carolina border and the N.C. Highway 58 bridge to Emerald Isle.
Recovered crab pots will be recycled as much as possible. The pots retrieved from the Albemarle Sound and Pamlico Sound region will be available for rightful property owners to reclaim after the project ends, the organization said.
The project takes place each year during the annual closure Jan. 1-31 that prohibits using crab, eel, fish and shrimp pots.
Since beginning in 2014, more than 23,000 lost crab pots have been recovered. Last year, the combined efforts of the commercial fishers and North Carolina Marine Patrol resulted in 2,463 pots being recovered across along the coast.