St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum staffmember August Ellis freeing fish and other marine critters rescued from a derelict crabtrap on Saturday’s Roundup and Waterway Cleanup.
The 2012 CrabTrap Roundup and Waterway Cleanup was a great success on Saturday. This event was sponsored and organized by LAMP and the Lighthouse, along with the Tower Club, our new support group made up of young professionals.
From the St. Augustine Record:
Dozens of volunteers searched the Tolomato, Matanzas and San Sebastian rivers as well as other areas and brought their finds back to one of three boat ramps that served as collection sites.
By the end of the day, around 60 volunteers had removed 30 traps and an estimated 1,500 pounds of trash from local waterways, said Brendan Burke, an archaeologist with the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program, which co-hosted the event. Around a dozen of those traps came from the San Sebastian River.
Lost or abandoned crab traps continue to trap wildlife as long as they are in the water and can cause many fish and other creatures to die, officials said. The traps also clutter the water and can be a hazard for boaters and people.
Fishermen can lose crab traps during storms and other events, Burke said.
“Every derelict crab trap that we removed, we’re saving hundreds if not thousands of marine animals that would have perished inside them,” he said.
Way to go, Brendan and August, for taking the lead in organizing this event, and way to go to the many volunteers from our community who participated in this great waterway cleanup!