Catches in abandoned snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio) pots in the Barents Sea

Retrieval Operations of Derelict Fishing Gears Give Insight on the Impact on Marine Life

“…Additionally, data from a commercial golden king crab fishery suggests a mean time to failure of 44 days for 30-thread strings (Barnard, 2008). On the other hand, when abandoned snow crab pots were recovered after spending approximately 1.5 years at sea, none of the 5 mm diameter cotton strings used had deteriorated, maintaining a mean breaking strength of 17 kg (Humborstad et al, 2021). Thereby, the effectiveness of this mechanism highly varies depending on cotton thread count, diameter, presence of a core, manufacturing processes, cotton quality / blends, braiding method, usage / storage before the pot is lost, pot type and environmental conditions (Winger et al, 2015).…”