There are "monsters" off the Maine coast. Hidden beneath the waves, they lurch along the seafloor, snag commercial gear, pollute the water, and hinder fishing. Good mariners know to steer clear. That is, unless you’re looking for them.    

With the help of Maine fishermen, Emma Weed is on the hunt for “ghost gear”: fishing traps, nets and other equipment lost or left derelict in the ocean. The most dramatic example is a gear ball, a collection of debris which she said can weigh up to around 56,000 pounds. Like a cartoon snowball rolling downhill, these marine chimeras continue to grow, swallowing debris.

“It's like a sea monster, and it will grab anything that's around it. It's usually rope, traps, all kinds of things that are all separate at one point in time. And through the tides and the currents, they wrap around each other. And then that can drag active gear into it,” Weed said. She added that the largest one found in the Boothbay Region was around 3,700 pounds.   

Weed, of Boothbay, is a program manager at the Kennebunk-based Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation (GOMLF). She works with Maine fishermen as part of Gear Grab, a multi-organization effort to help remove equipment from the seafloor and communities across the coast.

“Our mission is really to collaborate with the fisheries and see where we can meet them to deal with this problem and identify the problem and see how it's affecting their ongoing catch,” she said.   

Globally, estimates show at least 10% of marine litter is fishing waste, according to the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), which said 5.7% of all fishing nets, 8.6% of traps and pots, and 29% of all fishing lines used worldwide are lost each year. WWF estimates between 500,000 and 1 million tons of fishing gear enter the ocean every year. An estimated 175,000 lobster traps are lost in the Gulf of Maine a year, according to GOMLF. 

That gear represents lost investments and missed catches, and can also be a hazard. Derelict gear can snag ground-fishing equipment, hinder navigation and continue to capture sea life, including unintended animals. Synthetic materials from the equipment, such as lobster trap coating, can also break down and pollute the water and marine food webs.

“You feel pretty good getting that much plastic,” said Boothbay Harbor fisherman Devyn Campbell, adding that many people don’t realize how much trouble it can cause. "These old guys say, ‘Oh, well, it just disappears. What are you doing that for?’ And it's like, "Well, it doesn't really. It just gets smaller.’ That vinyl coating is all PVC. So that wears down, and that just turns into microplastics.”   

Campbell has been involved with ghost gear removal for years, and began working with GOMLF in 2025. He is one of about 40 fishermen working with the program, which facilitates the cleanup of gear from the seafloor, coastlines and even homes. Workers remove derelict equipment and dispose of it in local landfills and recycling centers. If the gear is still usable and identifiable, Campbell tries to return it to its owners when possible. 

Weed said the work is funded by philanthropic organizations, private donors, and grants. GOMLF collaborates with a cohort of organizations in the New England Gear team, involved from Massachusetts to Maine. They have also worked with NOAA, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR).    

The program operates from late fall to early spring. Weed said about 45 to 55 tons of material has been removed along the Maine coast since October, and Campbell tries to haul around 30-40 traps a day.  

“Normally, this time of year, we're not doing anything. And now I get the boat moving for a few months, which is nice,” Campbell said. “It helps a lot in the winter. It's also the time to be doing it. A lot of organizations try to do it in the summer but, in the winter, there's no gear in the way ... Most of the live traps are out of the way. So, you can go somewhere that's normally filled with gear, and all you're going to be able to do is just tow up all the ghost gear.”   

Campbell said the gear tends to be nearshore, nestled in valleys or the backs of ridges after storms, or concentrated in traffic lanes where boats have severed buoys. He uses a grapple with steel prongs attached to a heavy chain, grabbing what he can from the seafloor as he makes several passes. Apart from fishing gear, he said he’s had several unusual finds, including a 600-pound anchor, giant lobsters stuck in traps, electrical cables, and many tires. Campbell said he and his crew have mostly cleaned up the tip of Spruce Point, with teams of other fishermen working around Southport and nearby.    

Even fishermen who aren't working with the project try to help. Weed said they call in with tips, sometimes providing coordinates for where they think gear could be.    

“They're out on the water with all of our projects. They're out on the water the most. They know where stuff is. They know where it's safe to go, when it's safe to go," Weed said. "And we really want to ... compensate these fishermen for their time and their experiential knowledge on the water of how to locate, how to remove, and what is a problem area.”   

Weed said giving back to the fishermen is a critical part of the work. She comes from a family of Stonington-area fishermen and waterfront workers over 10 generations deep, which makes it even more personal. For her, the project is a way to support the fishing community and the ocean the community depends on.    

“(I want) to show and highlight them as stewards of the ocean that I knew growing up, generationally, that fishermen are,” Weed said. “Together, we will lift each other up and show how they can be a really, really important part of this solution.”