By-catch species reported from ghost crab pots
Ghost-catch species reported from abandoned and ghost crab pots in
North Carolina. Those in bold make up a significant portion of the total by-catch.
Fishes:
Black Seabass
Blue Catfish
Blue Fish
Bowfin
Brown Bullhead
Chubsucker
Conger Eel
Croker
Filefish
Gag Grouper
Goosfish
Hake
Hogchoker
Hogfish
Northern Puffer
Northern Searobin
Oscillated Flounder
Oyster Toadfish
Pigfish
Pilotfish
Pinfish
Plainheaded Filefish
Pumpkinseed
Red Drum
Raked Solefish
Remora
Searobbin
Shark Sucker
Sheepshead
Southern Flounder
Southern Hake
Spadefish
Speckled Trout
Spiny Toadfish
Spotted Burfish
Striped Bass
Striped Mullet
Summer Flounder
Spiny Puffer
Spot
Stingray
Warmouth
White Catfish
White Perch
Yellow Perch
Oyster Toadfish found trapped in a ghost crab pot
Invertebrates:
Blue Crabs
Conch (Channel Whelk)
Florida Horse Conch
Octopus
Flat-clawed Hermit Crab
Striped Hermit Crab
Horseshoe Crab
Miscellaneous jellyfishes
Purple Sea Urchins
Red Umbrella Jellyfish
Snails
Lady Crab
Spider Crab
Stone Crab
Rock Lobster
Spiny Lobster
Sooty Sea Hare
Reptiles, Mammals & Birds:
Eastern Mud Turtle
Diamondback Terrapin
River Otter
Raccoon
Muskrat
Grebe (sp.)
Hooded Merganser
Common Tern
Various shorebirds and rails
Carolina Wren
Reported additional mortality to
Bottle-nosed Dolphins, Loggerhead,
Kemp’s Ridley, and Green sea turtles
mostly through crab pot
rope entanglement.
Purple Sea Urchin found inside a ghost crab pot
Literature on bycatch in crab pots other than terrapins
Let us know if you have any additions to this list.
"There was an old man in a Marsh,
Whose manners were futile and harsh."
One Hundred Nonsense Pictures and Rhymes. Edward Lear 1812-1888
