Spring clean up as crews work to restore North Carolina’s waterways one crab pot at a time

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — With the start of spring almost here, many people will be enjoying the warmer weather by boat.

And a program has been going on for the past several weeks to make the waterways cleaner.

Every year, the state Division of Marine Fisheries Marine Patrol stops crab fishing for two weeks to clear abandoned crab pots and for the first time since 2019, the North Carolina Coastal Federation joined the effort.

This is one of many of the Federation’s efforts to remove debris from North Carolina waterways.

The Marine Patrol usually removes pots in the northern and central areas of our coast.

But the Federation’s Marine Debris program director, Ted Wilgis, said it became clear there was also a need this year to remove pots along the southern coast.

“There is less fishing effort down here, less crab potting down here than there are in the northern part of the state,” Wilgis said. “So we rely on Marine Patrol to let us know the density of pots and if there is a need. And this year, we heard both from crabbers and Marine Patrol that there was a need for this region.”

Wilgis said crews have collected more than 200 pots along the coast down to the South Carolina state line.

Joe Huie said most of the pots his crew clears are not purposely left there by crabbers.

“To eliminate any misconceptions, a lot of these pots aren’t maliciously left by fishermen and its not, you know, them just leaving their gear out there,’ Huie said. “A lot of these pots are hit by recreational boaters or other boats that clip the buoys and they get lost like that. We’ve also had fishermen that have died with their pots out there and the pots get abandoned that way. So it’s not all neglect, sometimes its unavoidable.”

Huie said his crew has cleared around 85 pots in the past two weeks.

The pause on crabbing ends this weekend, so make sure to pay attention and look out for buoys and pots if you’re going out boating.