#waste

"Florida native Neill Holland became a charter captain at age 18. In 2015, after traveling internationally for a decade, he returned to St. Petersburg, Florida, to resume his fishing charter operation with his partner Danielle Dawley. 

Time and again on their charters, Dawley and Holland came across derelict traps, also known as ghost traps. 

Ghost traps are fishing traps that have been swept away in storms and currents or simply abandoned over time. 

Once lost, these rusted traps often pose risks to coral reefs below and passing boats above — all while trapping and killing marine life that die long before they are pulled to the surface. 

Those decaying fish, in turn, attract more sea animals into the trap, starting the cycle anew.

After ghost traps continued cropping up in their day-to-day, Dawley and Holland founded Ocean Aid 360: a conservation organization that works with fishing industry professionals, community volunteers, and government agencies to find, retrieve, and recycle marine debris — including ghost traps.

Their most popular program? Ghost trap rodeos: fishing tournaments that reward entrants for salvaging abandoned fishing gear.

“We started in October of 2018 through a grant from NOAA, which enabled us to hold seven tournament-style marine debris events around Tampa Bay,” Holland told the Port Charlotte Sun in mid-July. 

“In that first year, our target was 15,000 pounds of marine debris. We ended up collecting 27,000 pounds, and had fabulous numbers of community members coming out to participate,” he said. 

“Since then, we’ve worked all over Florida and the Bahamas, with more than 60 event days and about 60,000 pounds of marine debris collected — including more than 8,200 derelict traps.”

The latest ghost trap rodeo — hosted on July 19 — pulled in 4,000 pounds of trash, including 128 ‘ghost traps,’ from the Tampa Bay. 

Two minutes into the event, Holland was already reeling in a ghost trap. 

“This is a textbook example of a derelict crab trap,” Holland told the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s been left out, and as you can see it’s pretty darn crusty and rusted.”

Holland estimates that 10% of all traps placed in the water become ghost traps.

“It’s a recurring problem here, and we really have to stay on top of it,” said Peter Clark, the president and founder of Tampa Bay Watch —  one of many local organizations that helped host the ghost trap rodeo competition.

“We’re helping to protect fish and wildlife, we’re taking marine debris out of the bay, and it’s a great project to get the community involved to help restore and protect Tampa Bay.”

From the article:

But, as Brownell explained to new customers, Smart is different from the typical craft store: Everything on its shelves has been donated. The shop is what is known as a creative reuse center. These crafting thrift stores keep leftover and unwanted art supplies out of landfills, and instead get them into the hands of other creators at affordable prices. Smart combines that model with another mission. Many of the employees and volunteers who run the shop are adults with disabilities. Over the last decade, the organization has diverted more than one million pounds of art and craft materials from landfills, while providing over 37,400 hours of job coaching, volunteering and employment for adults with disabilities.

I think this is a really great example of how expansive environmental work can be--and how it can coincide with other forms of community action.

‘Polluted Water Popsicles’ (2017) by: Hung I-chen, Guo Yi-hui & Chen Yu-ti