Abandoned lobster traps in Long Island Sound to be removed

By SUSAN HAIGH
Associated Press

Federal funding has been approved to begin removing some of the hundreds of thousands of derelict lobster traps left behind on the floor of the Long Island Sound, a “ghost fishery” that continues to trap and kill marine life to this day. It comes about two decades after Connecticut’s lobster industry collapsed. The $569,000 included in the new federal budget bill will finance a coalition, led by The Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk, that will oversee retrieval of the traps. The goal is to eventually hire local charter fishing vessels and fishermen to collect an initial 3,000 traps over two years.