February 16, 2017 — Commercial fishermen hired by the North Carolina Coastal Federation’s annual Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project collected 4,270 lost and derelict crab pots this year from sounds up and down the state’s coast.
The project was able to hire 72 fishermen during a week and a half timeframe in January to remove the crab pots. Thanks to a $100,000 appropriation from the General Assembly, this was the first time the project had expanded beyond northeastern North Carolina. The program extended across three North Carolina Marine Patrol districts along the state’s coast, from the Virginia state line to the South Carolina line.