TAMPA, Fla. — Ocean Aid 360 is leading the charge to stop what is known as “ghost fishing” in Tampa Bay waters.

According to the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based nonprofit, one in every 10 crab traps are lost or abandoned and continue to catch and kill marine life for up to five years. Other fishing equipment, like lines that are cut free in the water, also cause harm long after they are left behind.

Co-founder and boat Capt. Neill Holland said he started noticing the so-called ghost gear in the region while out on charters a few years ago.

“I didn’t really know what to do next other than get some of our friends and family members involved and it really started to snowball from there,” Holland said.

Holland helped launch Ocean Aid 360, a nonprofit that, through federal grant money, works to clean up by holding events dubbed Ghost Trap Rodeos, where volunteers help recover derelict traps and other kinds of debris left behind.

Since launching in 2018, the efforts have pulled nearly 300,000 pounds of ghost gear from the water.

The organization also provides data and research to The Ocean Conservancy, another nonprofit that focuses on environmental advocacy.

“We want commercial fishermen to be able to catch these forever,” said J.P. Booker, the conservancy’s director. “We want recreational fisherman to be able to catch these forever and if we’re just ghost fishing, that puts that in jeopardy.”

The Ocean Conservancy is working to develop policy that could potentially be used to stop ghost fishing. In the meantime, Holland has advice for those heading out on the water.

“You don’t want to put traps in a navigable channel where a boat could run it over,” Holland said. “You want to make sure that if a storm is coming into the area that you go and pull your gear so that it’s not lost by being shuffled along the bottom. And mostly you just want to fish responsibly.”

For information on upcoming Ghost Trap Rodeos, visit Ocean Aid 360’s event page.