Every other summer, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission closes the blue crab fishery so volunteers and organizations can collect derelict traps.
http://vimeo.com/70430505
Videography by Tim Kenney
The season is officially closed from July 10th through the 19th. Florida Sea Grant Agent Joy Hazell coordinated the first clean up at Matlacha Pass.
Hazell says the FWCC closes the fishery for multiple reasons. Crab traps can be navigational hazards and some people find them unpleasant to look at. She also said they are culprits of “ghost fishing.”
“If the trap is out there, it’s lost or it’s not being maintained,” Hazell said. “It’s catching fish or crabs and those fish or crabs are dying.”
The closure began in 2009 and occurs every other year. That first year, they collected 84 traps in the pass.
Volunteers including commercial fishermen and members of the Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserves went out early one morning to look for traps.
Commercial crabber Roy Kibbe and a friend joined them. Kibbe is the owner of Jug Creek Seafood as well as Kibbe and Company.
Kibbe, who plants 400 traps during the open season, says commercial fisherman have a financial incentive to keep track of their traps.
“All this equipment that you’re looking at basically runs anywhere from $30 to $40 a trap so if you lost 5 traps,” Kibbe said. “You’re losing a couple hundred dollars plus the production of the traps. We pretty much patrol ourselves, especially in this area.”
But, the timing for this cleanup is wrong for Kibbe. Summer is high season for blue crabs and when the closure happens, he says he can’t turn to alternative fish such as mullet or stone crabs to harvest.
“Blue-crabbing right now is 80 percent of my business so being closed I’ve been out for two days now,” Kibbe said. “We’ll basically be out of business for three weeks.”
He estimates the closure costs him about a quarter of a million dollars.
At the end of the day, Florida Sea Grant Agent Joy Hazell’s team collected five traps. Fisherman Kibbe and friend found 13.
Hazell said this is the lowest number of traps they’ve collected during the closed season.
“It’s not as exciting as getting a ton,” Hazell said. “But, as far as the environment is concerned, it’s a really good day.”
