N.C. 

 Commercial 

 Fishermen 

 Recycle 

 22 Tons 

 of Used 

 Equipment 



By Carla Burgess 



The state's commercial fishermen 

 recycled nearly 22 tons of crab pots and 

 nets in February, attacking a waste 

 disposal problem and setting a good 

 environmental example to boot. 



Coastal fishermen carried trash 

 from their trade — old shrimp and 

 flounder nets and worn-out crab pots — 

 to 17 drop-off sites in nine counties 

 during a two-week period. By the time 

 the collection had ended, they had 

 squashed and stacked 4,600 crab pots 

 and shed enough net to fill several 

 tractor trailers. 



The effort was coordinated by N.C. 

 Sea Grant and funded by the National 



caring fishermen out there who are good 

 stewards of our public resources." 



An indispensable partner in the 

 project was the state's Office of Waste 

 Reduction, which coordinated removal 

 of the waste material and its recycling. 



"We're after reducing the waste 

 stream going into the landfill ... (and) it 

 makes sense to promote not throwing 

 them (nets and pots) back into the 

 water," says Gerry Sutton, waste 

 management analyst with the Office of 

 Waste Reduction. His agency has 

 already devised similar solutions for 

 farmers by collecting and recycling 

 plastic containers that once held 

 pesticides and other chemicals. "A 



Crab pots stacked at drop-off at South Creek, Etles Henries Seafood 



Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Until 

 this first-time project was arranged, old 

 crab pots and other useless gear were 

 destined for the landfill — or worse, 

 illegally dumped along tidal creekbanks 

 or into coastal waters. 



"There's really nothing that looks 

 worse than a bunch of rusted-out, 

 stomped crab pots lying along the 

 shore," says Tyrrell County crabber 

 Willie Phillips. He says it's time 

 fishermen began to tackle their waste 

 disposal problems and polish their 

 public image as well. 



"There are perceptions that people 

 in the fishing industry aren't taking 

 good care of the environment," says 

 Lundie Spence, Sea Grant's marine 

 education specialist. "This project was 

 clear evidence that there are a lot of 



couple of years ago, we had problems 

 within the agricultural community of 

 dumped chemical containers. Stuff 

 ended up in the woods." 



Weighing in at 20 tons, crab pots 

 accounted for the bulk of the material. 

 With an estimated quarter of a million 

 discarded pots entering the state's waste 

 stream each year, crab pots present a 

 bigger disposal problem than nets. In 

 North Carolina and other Southeastern 

 states, fishermen rigorously reuse their 

 nets. The fish net material, including 

 nylon, polyethylene, polypropylene and 

 monofilament, made up only a fraction 

 of the collection by weight — 3,500 

 pounds. 



The nets were baled at the East 

 Carolina Vocational Center in 

 Greenville and marketed overseas. 



22 MAY/ JUNE 1995 



