Lost traps, several kilometres of rope removed to protect Gulf right whales

Federal fishery officers and the Canadian Coast Guard have removed 101 lost snow crab traps from throughout the Gulf of St. Lawrence as part of efforts to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

The federal Fisheries Department says the trap removal also took more than 9 kilometres of rope from the water. The retrieval operation announced last week to find so called “ghost gear” recently took place over 3 days.

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It involved seven vessels and focused on the areas of the Gulf where the most gear was reported lost or missing by fishermen.

Since 2018, harvesters in the southern Gulf have been required to report lost gear, and so far this year there have been over 1,000 reports of lost fishing gear.

North Atlantic right whales number only about 400 worldwide, and so far this year eight have died in Canadian waters.

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