2026 Program Results are In!
During the 10 day crabbing closure period, February 20 to March 1, 2026, 154 volunteers and 46 boats participated in the coordinated removal of 615 abandoned crab traps from Texas Mid-Coast Bays.
Volunteers focused on comprehensively searching bay shorelines and open waters, to document trap locations and removals, contributing valuable data that defines future response and prevention strategies. Data collected includes trap location, owner, and contents.
This data indicates that:
● Windblown traps continue to be the most significant cause of trap dereliction. 309 (50%) traps were removed from shorelines.
● 131 abandoned traps were removed from open bay waters which could have been removed by the crabbers. This category of traps offers a straight- forward solution: crabbers should pick up their traps. What complicates this solution is that over 76% of these traps are without the required equipment tag and therefore the owner cannot be identified.
● 67 traps were removed from marsh areas where lower winter tides make removal by the crabber or volunteers difficult. This includes much of the marsh on the backside of Matagorda Island that has been closed to commercial crabbing by USFWS.
