Why it matters
For lobster fisheries, ghost gear means ongoing mortality, wasted effort, habitat damage, and added vertical line risk for protected species.
Ghost Gear
Lost or abandoned fishing gear that continues to trap or entangle marine life after it is no longer actively fished.
Definition
Ghost gear refers to traps, lines, and other fishing equipment left in the water after storms, conflict, or loss that can continue catching animals.
Conservation impact
Managers and industry partners treat ghost gear as both a fishery-efficiency problem and a conservation problem. Retrieval programs reduce avoidable mortality, clean up habitat, and support the same line-reduction goals driving whale-protection rules.
Quick facts
- Main risk
- Continued capture after gear is lost
- Who is affected
- Lobsters, fish, benthic habitat, and protected species
- Response
- Gear retrieval and prevention programs
Related reading
The Silent Threat: Impact of Ghost Gear on Lobster Populations
Abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear—ghost gear—kills an estimated 12,500 to 33,000 lobsters per year in Cape Cod Bay alone, and costs the US lobster industry roughly $250 million annually. Here's what the science says and what's being done about it.