May 21, 2019 — Lost and abandoned fishing nets, which have killed millions of sea creatures in Puget Sound, still lurk in deeper, darker waters, where they continue to catch fish and crabs.
But the quiet, unregulated killing has been quelled substantially since 2002, as divers have pulled up nearly 6,000 of these so-called “ghost nets.”
The challenge for the future is to find and quickly remove newly lost nets while going after the difficult-to-remove nets still fishing in more than 100 feet of water. Programs are moving forward on both fronts.
The massive removal of ghost nets over a 13-year period ultimately cost the state and federal governments about $11 million. But if the 5,809 nets had been left in place, they might still be catching and killing up to 12 million animals each year, based on studies that measured the catch rates of abandoned nets.
“The magnitude of this effort often gets overlooked when considering the restoration of Puget Sound,” said Ginny Broadhurst, executive director of the Salish Sea Institute. “We talk about the Nisqually and the Elwha, but (net removal) is among the most important restoration efforts.”
The Nisqually Delta Restoration Project restored nearly 1,000 acres of wetlands, and the removal of two dams on the Elwha River opened up nearly 70 miles of salmon-spawning habitat. But pulling out derelict nets produced an immediate, long-lasting and cost-effective outcome, argues Broadhurst, who was involved in the early days of net removal as director of the Northwest Straits Commission.
Many of the lost nets appear to have been fishing continually for 20 to 30 years or more after getting snagged on rocky outcroppings or submerged pilings during the heyday of commercial salmon fishing in the 1970s and ’80s, said Larry LeClair, a biologist and diver with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.