"Ghost gear" refers to any fishing gear that has been lost or abandoned.

This week the Cape Breton Environmental Association was searching the along the coastline from Wadden’s Cove to Schooner Pond, in search of abandoned lobster traps or other marine debris or gear.

They say the lobster season in this zone ended on July 17th, but abandoned traps may still be capturing lobster. In two of the three traps the group pulled, there was live lobster inside. The group released them, but for the other 15 traps they identified, several of those may also contain trapped lobster.

While the group says they cannot pull the other traps due to federal regulations, they recorded vessel numbers and the associated GPS coordinates for each trap they discovered. They've also offered to provide the info to the lobster harvesters who own the equipment and are submitting the data to the local office of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Sydney.