1,000 ghost pots to be removed from Inland Bays
UD, Delaware Sea Grant awarded $225,000 funding from NOAA’s Marine Debris Removal Program
Recreational crabbing has long been a tradition in the Cape Region’s Inland Bays. To the chagrin of the bays’ crabs, turtles and fish, so have derelict crab pots.
With that in mind, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently announced the University of Delaware has been awarded $225,000 to clean up 1,000 of those lost and abandoned traps over the next two years.
Annually, through its Marine Debris Program, NOAA offers a competitive funding opportunity supporting projects with a focus on community-based marine debris removal. This year, 10 projects across the country were awarded a total of $1.3 million. UD’s amount was the largest awarded this year.
The trio responsible for getting the NOAA grant are Katherine Fleming, Delaware Sea Grant coastal ecologist; Ed Hale, Delaware Sea Grant fishery specialist; and Art Trembanis, University of Delaware professor of oceanography.