"Bandit" Lobster Pots

[CaptainCJ35]

All the talk of lobster bouys on that other thread got me thinking...

What the hell is going on with the thousands of "bandit" lobster traps in Boston harbor and all the way south past Scituate?

I've never seen so many clorox bottles tied to cheap nylon line in my life! It's like mine fields in the middle of marked channels and with the higher than normal tides they get pulled under the surface. You never see them until you're pulling out a frayed nylon rats nest and twisted plastic out of your prop.

Used to be commercial guys would just cut them on sight. Now they don't care? Or are they supplimenting their income off the books as it were?

I've had to dive under 3 times this past week or so and I'm getting frustrated, nervous for my running gear, and ready to go ballistic if something more serious than a speed bump in my day occurs.

[Tuna Meltdown]

All the talk of lobster bouys on that other thread got me thinking...

What the hell is going on with the thousands of "bandit" lobster traps in Boston harbor and all the way south past Scituate?

I've never seen so many clorox bottles tied to cheap nylon line in my life! It's like mine fields in the middle of marked channels and with the higher than normal tides they get pulled under the surface. You never see them until you're pulling out a frayed nylon rats nest and twisted plastic out of your prop.

Used to be commercial guys would just cut them on sight. Now they don't care? Or are they supplimenting their income off the books as it were?

I've had to dive under 3 times this past week or so and I'm getting frustrated, nervous for my running gear, and ready to go ballistic if something more serious than a speed bump in my day occurs.

I've hit quite a few of them myself. Not sure why there isn't anything done about it but I agree with you that it is only getting worse. Last year I was on a friends boat setting the gill nets in Wollaston and we lost and entire net to a string of pots on the bottom. The only "bouy" and I'll use that term loosely attached to the string was a clear 20 oz. soda bottle. It took us well over an hour to try and fevorishly recover our gill net from the string. Lets just say that the owner of the boat I was on was pissed beyond words and that bandit will never again find that string.

[backman]

2 or 3 lines of them on my line from Falmouth to Cape Poge.

Wonderful feeling on the coming 3 AM steams..

[codfishshark]

For the most part they arent "bandit" buoys they are commercial guys using whatever they can for markers. With the bad economy and all these guys are just trying to make ends meet.

[CaptainCJ35]

Over several beers on the dock the other night, me and some of the other boat owners discussed a "Big Game Clorox Bottle Tournament"...

[quakah]

For the most part they arent "bandit" buoys they are commercial guys using whatever they can for markers. With the bad economy and all these guys are just trying to make ends meet.

Makes sense, i have been seeing more and more of them down this way. Are there still numbers somewhere on them, how do you figure out whose clorox bottle is whose?

[CaptainCJ35]

Hey Cod... I understand those commecial guys are doing what they can to litterally stay afloat, but it's outta hand. If they are setting a few here and there amungst their strings or way outside of marked channels, ok fine.

But thats not whats going on. They are setting down in the most traveled sections of the busiest port in New England! Sooner or later something bad is going to happen. I almost had a disaster last week but only my spray rail suffered injury. Could have been a lot worse.

It's to the point where you are able to walk from Castle Island to Thompson's and then over to Spectacle without getting your feet wet.

[CaptainCJ35]

No marks of any kind. One or two bottles tied together on the end of what looks like whatever old line they could find... even old dock lines.

[codfishshark]

Usually one end has a marked buoy which is out of the channel. They have been doing it for years in boston harbor with there marked buoys out of the channel.

[Parapapam]

2 or 3 lines of them on my line from Falmouth to Cape Poge.

Wonderful feeling on the coming 3 AM steams..

I wrapped up one of those "pots" last year at 4 am. Black sort of marker... One of the few advantaged of an outboard was that I unwrapped it without having to swim.

But not fun in the dark either way...

Mike