MBFT Program Spotlight: Lost Gear Recovery
Since 2017, the Monterey Bay Fisheries Trust (MBFT) has partnered with local fishermen, the boating community, and local harbor districts to find and remove lost crab gear from the Bay. The project reduces the risk of entanglements with boats and marine life while highlighting the existing stewardship of our local fishing community.
How does it work?
As coordinator of the project, MBFT recruits a team of fishermen and women as "Designated Retrievers" for our Lost or Abandoned Commercial Dungeness Crab Trap Gear Permit. The permit, which we apply for through the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, can include up to ten Designated Retrievers and ten associated vessels. To be a Designated Retriever, you must have landed in a commercial trap fishery in the past three calendar years.
MBFT also collaborates with all three harbors (Monterey, Moss Landing, and Santa Cruz) to coordinate storage locations for the recovered pots, and we partner with local whale watching tours, marine scientists, and others, who aide as “spotters” to help locate lost gear when out on the water.
Starting 15 calendar days after the commercial Dungeness crab fishing season closes, the Designated Retrievers can start retrieving lost gear. They record the information in the CDFW Trap Gear Retrieval Logbook, notify MBFT, and leave the pots at one of the secure storage locations. MBFT then contacts the owner to arrange for pickup and payment. The program ends on September 30th.
We have typically charged $70/pot to the owners and offered a $60/pot reimbursement to the retrievers for their time and expense, though we've experimented with different reimbursement structures (for context, most ports charge $100/pot or more depending on the difficulty in recovering the gear).
How can you get involved?
If you are a commercial fisherman interested in participating as a Designated Retriever, and you’ve landed in a commercial trap fishery in the past three calendar years, please contact us at (831) 233-3101 or info@mbfishtrust.org. We plan to apply for the permit in March, so please reach out soon!
If you are a boater interested in helping locate lost gear, please contact us at (831) 233-3101 or info@mbfishtrust.org for more information.