JT Outland helps clean up fishing debris

Every year during three weeks of January, the state requires Crabbers to remove their crab pots from the water. This is known as the no potting season. For the past few years, the coastal Federation has used this opportunity to pay boat captains to go out and find any pots left in the water. These pots are considered lost or abandoned. The lost pots pose a safety hazard, as well as a danger to the environment by trapping crab and fish who then die in the pot. This also employs some boat captains during the no potting period. This year they collected more than 3000 Lost or abandoned pots along the North Carolina coast.