The bottom of Long Island Sound is a little less cluttered. A recovery coalition has hauled up more than 4,000 abandoned lobster traps since its launch four years ago.
That amounts to more than 200,000 pounds of marine debris headed for recycling. The group is called Lobster Trap Recovery and Assessment Partnership, or L-TRAP. It includes the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, Save the Sound, Project Oceanology, Remote Ecologist and local fishermen.
“It’s incredible to know that marine debris is permanently out of the water, not a risk of potential harm to wildlife," said Justin Susarchick, who leads scientific research at Maritime. "We still believe there are tens of thousands of traps out in the water, so there’s still a lot of work to be done, but we’re very excited about what we’ve accomplished so far!"
The biggest concern with the traps down there is something called ghost fishing —animals get stuck, eventually die off, which then only attracts more animals to the traps, creating a chronic cycle.
“And it also harms the commercial fisheries," Susarchick said. "This gear is a nuisance; it’s in the way and also competing with active traps that captains today are putting down in the water.”
Decades ago, Long Island Sound was home to a massive lobster industry, up there with Maine, according to Susarchick, that eventually tanked in the late 1990s.
“People will debate on any one issue, but we do believe that it was a perfect storm of warming waters, shellfish disease that was really rampant at the time, as well as potentially pesticide pollution," he said. "All coming together, that really created a perfect storm that decimated the population…and unfortunately they haven’t recovered up until this point.”
Susarchick said there’s still work to be done to improve the health of the Sound, but they are heading in the right direction.
“Every day we go out there, I’m seeing the water is better than it has been in decades past, wildlife is coming back to the area…we’re seeing a vibrant population of fish, and we want to continue this great work to give wildlife the best chance to survive.”
More than 230 recovery trips are planned for crews in 2027. They will utilize new sonar technology thanks to the 2023 National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Long Island Sound Futures Fund grant.
