The fishing industry is being asked to help collect abandoned fishing gear from Currituck Sound to south of Oregon Inlet.

You’ve heard about catching a crab with just a string and a chicken leg. This method works on a small scale. But the process of catching crab commercially in eastern North Carolina involves placing traps in the water and waiting for the crabs to enter. The 18 by 24 inch wire crab pots are baited and dropped overboard. A rope is tied to each trap and connected to a buoy floating on the surface of the water. It’s an efficient way of catching crab, but Coastal Advocate with the North Carolina Coastal Federation Ladd Bayliss says turtles and fish are often caught too. She says abandon crab pots, underwater and out of sight, can also pose a major navigation hazard for boaters.

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