SEQUIM — A yearlong study of Dungeness Bay adds credence to what fisheries officials have suspected for years: derelict pots kill crab and cost commercial shellfish operations money.

“The project confirmed what we’ve known about the impact of pots,” said Ginny Broadhurst, Northwest Straits Commission director.

“The economic impacts are pretty darn significant.”

Jeff June, a Northwest Straits Commission consultant who helped conduct the study, agreed.

“It looks like derelict crab pots are killing between 4 to 5 percent of the crab harvest in Dungeness Bay,” June said.

That amounts to some $600,000 to $800,000 lost to commercial operators dropping pots there.

The study found that, after 12 months of sampling pots, 487 crabs were caught, 191 escaped pots with biodegradable rot cords that allow the pots to open in a month and 180 crabs died. Crabs found alive in the pots numbered 188.

Six days or more

It takes six days or longer before a Dungeness crab dies in a pot, the report states. Lost pots also trap kill sunflower starfish.

The study found that a pot that remains intact, without a biodegradable rot cord, will catch about 42 crab per year, killing 14.

The mortality rate was found to be heaviest in shallower depths.

Over the study period, 48 crabs died at 60 feet compared to 132 dead at 30 feet.

Commercial pots caught 266 crabs over the year, killing 109, while 221 crabs in recreational pots killed 71 crabs.

Based on the study, officials predict that about 14,000 crab pots are lost each year in Puget Sound and inside waters.

Of those pots, 80 percent use rot cord, while 20 percent do not.

Based on a year, the study predicts that 2,800 pots without rot cord would kill 41,187 crabs.

The study results fortify Northwest Straits Commission’s efforts in 2002 to remove abandoned crab pots, using divers.

The derelict gear removal program has removed 1,921 derelict pots, weighing 48,421 pounds.

Based on the Dungeness Bay study and another study in Port Susan Bay near Camano Island, about $14.4 million in commercial and recreational crab are lost annually.

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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com