Successful three-day Operation Ghost recovers 101 traps and nine kilometres of rope from the water in the Gulf of St. Lawrence (CNW Group/Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) Canada)
As a part of ongoing efforts to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whales, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and other experts spent three days retrieving lost fishing gear from the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
101 lost snow crab traps were recovered, and officials also removed over nine kilometres of rope from the waters.
So far, there have been over one thousand reports of lost fishing gear in the Gulf this year.
Eight dead right whales have been found in Canadian waters in 2019.
DFO has been working with industry on an ongoing basis to encourage fish harvesters to undertake ghost gear removal initiatives in conjunction with local DFO fishery officers. It is also working to expand current mandatory reporting requirements for lost gear to more fisheries.
The three-day operation to retrieve lost fishing gear is the first concentrated effort by fishery officers and the Canadian Coast Guard to recover ghost gear.
It involved seven Coast Guard vessels, including the icebreaker CCGS George R. Pearkes, two dedicated Science program vessels CCGS Leim and M. Perley, two fisheries enforcement mid-shore patrol vessels CCGS Peddle and A. LeBlanc and two inshore fisheries enforcement patrol vessels, CCGS S. Dudka and Pointe Caveau.
