Coastal Mapping and Sciences LLC (CMS) is an environmental consulting firm located in southeast Louisiana that specializes in coastal sciences, GIS, hydrographic surveys, and marine tech services. With only three full time staffers working with an assortment of subcontractors and off-season charter fishermen, CMS is a “small but spunky” force in the Louisiana community. The organization started removing derelict fishing gear in 2018, building off of the work started in 2004 by the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. In the past eight years, CMS has recovered over 22,500 derelict traps.
As a partner of the National TRAP program, the CMS team targets two primary areas: the Terrebonne Basin and Lake Pontchartrain. Upon closure of the fisheries, CMS is allowed a 14 day window – a tight turnaround time – to enter each area and retrieve derelict gear while crabbing and shrimping boats are out of the water. While the extent of derelict gear already looks alarming on the surface, the damage is worse below the water. Owner Adamy Songy explains, “for every abandoned buoy you can see on the surface, there are around four traps hidden underwater without buoys attached.” Overall, there are estimated to be over 188,000 traps lost in Louisiana’s waters, and the harm is ongoing: research shows that every lost trap captures and kills an estimated 26 crabs per year. CMS primarily targets derelict blue crab pots, though they will find the occasional hoop or shrimp trawl net as well. So far, the team has recovered 1818 traps, with the potential to add 400-500 more traps by the end of their retrieval period in the fall of 2026.
One of the most striking findings from CMS’s work in the Terrebonne basin has been the sheer number of diamondback terrapins caught in derelict traps. The team recorded the highest encounter rate with terrapins of any site in the National TRAP Program, and at one point found 22 dead terrapins inside a single trap. In total, 51 terrapins were recovered alive or dead across the project area between the Terrebonne basin and Lake Pontchartrain. Beyond terrapins, the bycatch has included sheepshead, flounder, oyster toadfish, and a significant number of stone crabs, a species not commonly found this far inland.
A typical retrieval day starts around 7:30 a.m. and runs between 10 to 12 hours. To spot and retrieve buoyed traps, the team relies on visual surveys and the local knowledge of commercial fishermen to navigate known hotspots. Unbuoyed traps, on the other hand, require sonar to detect their locations, and CMS uses a skimmer-style shrimp boat outfitted with a tickle chain and hooks that can snag these traps as the boat moves forward. Boats can hold 80 – 100 crab traps each, and at the end of the day, the crew meets back on shore to run the recovered traps through a modified log splitter that serves as a “trap crusher” before hauling them off to the scrapyard or recycling facility.
Working with the community has been vital to the success of the three project areas. As the CMS team works to clean Louisiana’s waters, local support has been overwhelming – in Terrebonne, Songy actually had to start turning away crabbers who wanted to help with the effort. For Songy, the core takeaway from the retrieval experience is simple but urgent: derelict traps are far more pervasive (and destructive) than most people realize. And his message for crabbers? Simply replacing a lost trap doesn’t solve the problem! The original, lost trap is still sitting on the sea floor, actively catching and killing crabs and competing with the fisherman’s new gear.
The National TRAP Program has represented a turning point for CMS’s derelict gear removal efforts. “This project has provided the most money I’ve ever seen put toward derelict trap removal,” says Songy. This grant has allowed them to go further in data collection and in impact. For a small team doing big work, it has been, in Songy’s words, “a monumental step” for derelict trap removal in Louisiana.
