Stevens et al : Ghost fishing by Tanner crab pots 



393 



No. of Tanner crab caught 

 (live and as empty carapace) 



t i 1 00 



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,.\^^ 



,<^ 



^ Chiniak Bay 



^^ 



.^if- 



** + 



++ Of 

 -1. + . 



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Figure 2 



Location of pots retrieved from Chiniak Bay and adjacent areas during all studies, and index of Tanner crab catch 

 per pot (crab per pot I. Smallest circles represent one crab, and crosses represent pots with no crabs. Location of 

 the three pots retrieved from L^gak Bay is not shown. 



7 pots recovered during the pilot study and 43 pots 

 recovered during the targeted study. Three of these 

 were not previously detected by sonar and were pre- 

 sumed to be subsistence pots less than a year old, lost 

 after the sonar survey was conducted, because com- 

 mercial fishing had been closed in this area for over 

 two years. An additional 22 inside pots were recov- 

 ered during the nontargeted study. The remaining 75 

 pots were recovered from outside the surveyed area 

 ( "outside" pots ) during the nontargeted study. Square 

 pots were the most common (SO'/f , including two cod 

 pots), followed by pyramidal (24% ) and conical ( 16%). 

 Nine round pots (6%) were recovered, all of which 

 were less than 1.07 m in diameter and were cov- 

 ered with a wire mesh that does not degrade easily; 

 these were probably intended to catch Dungeness 

 crabs (Cancer magister). Additional pots included 

 two small subsistence type pots, one rectangular 

 shrimp pot, and one made from a 55-gal oil drum. 



Intact biodegradable twine was found in only eight 

 commercial pots (3 square, 2 pyramid, 3 conical). Of 

 those eight, four were classified as being in good con- 

 dition, two as fair, one as poor, and for one pot, data 

 on its condition were not available (Table 2). Three 



of these had other holes in the webbing. Eighty- 

 eight pots had holes in the webbing; for 85 of these 

 pots, the holes might have been the result of the 

 degradation of biodegradable twine (excluding the 

 three mentioned above with intact twine). However, 

 as stated previously, without evidence of biodegrad- 



