Coastal Conservation Association (CCA)

The Crab Man Cometh
Long-time CCA Texas member Ronnie Luster wins the 2006 Hero of Conservation Award from Field & Stream magazine.

By Ted Venker
TIDE
Jan/Feb 2007

A crab trap every 14.4 feet.

That was the sight that motivated Ronnie Luster to take action against a seemingly never-ending onslaught on marine life along the Texas coast. A highly effective, non-degradable, self-perpetuating killing machine every 14.4 feet is really more than any animal should ever have to bear in its natural environment.

Along a three-mile stretch of shallow-water lagoon near Port O’Connor, Texas, Luster counted more than 1,100 crab traps in less than three miles. That was the turning point.

“Over the years, I watched pristine coastal nursery areas around Port O’Connor go from no traps, to a few, then a few dozen, then a few hundred,” he said. “It had turned into a virtual killing field, and there was nothing at the time that anyone could do about it legally. Looking at all those traps and knowing the damage they were doing was just too much. We had to do something.”

GHOST TRAPS

The biggest problem with traps in shallow areas, or anywhere in the ocean for that matter, is that they are often lost or abandoned. These ghost traps become an environmental disaster as they continue to trap crabs, finfish and even the occasional turtle or otter. Left unattended, the sea life dies and essentially re-baits the abandoned trap, creating a perpetual environmental problem.

In this case, crab traps were killing marine life in the most delicate and essential parts of a bay that Luster liked to fish. Placed in areas that are prime nursery habitat for a litany of sea creatures big and small, the traps were taking a tremendous toll. Biologists estimate the average abandoned trap kills between two and four dozen crabs a year, in addition to flounder, redfish, diamondback turtles and birds.

“The last thing that dies lures the next thing in,” said Luster. “It is a cycle of death.”

Up until 2002, the crab fishery in Texas was open year-round, and since the law considered them private property, the traps could not be touched. The only way a trap could be removed was for it to be deemed illegal by a game warden and removed in a game warden’s presence. Needless to say, the rules made it difficult to make a dent in the crab trap problem.

Compounding the trouble, the traps themselves are not overly complex or expensive to make. If a storm surged through a bay system and swept away hundreds of traps, it was not a crushing financial hardship for commercial crabbers to simply put out new ones.

But the old ones were still out there working, somewhere.

In early 2000, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department received legislative authorization to create a brief closed season on commercial crabbing in state water. This move was a by-product of the efforts by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens in the Port O’Connor area to remove derelict traps from the estuaries. With a closed season identified, any trap still in the water during that time could be removed by wardens whether they were abandoned, illegal or not.

Game Warden Rex Mayes and others brought in cadets from the Warden’s Academy to do the dirty and exhausting work of wrestling illegal and forgotten traps from the mud and muck. That first year they had one airboat which was a challenge just to keep running, let alone get into shallow areas and pick up traps. But even with limited early success, the tide for crab trap clean up was starting to turn.

ENTER THE CRAB MAN

Luster, Mayes and the leadership of CCA Texas had a meeting to discuss the problem and what could be done to help. Luster’s conservation wheels started turning and he gathered up nine buddies with airboats and three other shallow draft boats to launch a real assault.

The next problem was finding a place to dispose of the traps. Never one to be defeated, Luster got on the phone with Kees Verheul, a long-time CCA Texas member, and a disposal area was secured on his ranch between Seadrift and Port O’Connor. In the fall of 2000, the first unofficial crab trap cleanup took place. Luster and his CCA colleagues, and Mayes and his Game Warden officers picked up about 800 traps. They held another cleanup in early 2001 and another 800 traps were removed.

Now the wheels were really in motion. After extensive lobbying efforts by CCA, Senate Bill 1410 was passed by the Texas Legislature, creating the first closed season on commercial crabbing in Texas waters for February 16 – March 3, 2002.

With the closed season in place and the law changed so that regular citizens were able to remove traps during the closure without the presence of a game warden, the stage was set for a serious effort. Captain Mayes stated that it was the first time a civilian association has ever participated on a voluntary basis to assist the enforcement division to seize crab traps. That year, 540 volunteers and 223 vessels removed more than 8,000 traps from Texas waters.

“The greatest impact of the crab trap removal project is the almost complete removal of abandoned traps in the shallow estuaries of the mid-coast of Texas where the largest problem exists,” said Luster. “These shallow, grassy estuary areas are invaluable to the resource and should be treated as such.”

CLEANING UP THE COAST

There have now been four successful crab trap pick-ups in Texas, recovering tens of thousands of abandoned ghost traps. The effort has grown considerably over the years with the participation of other conservation groups and the Fish America Foundation, which provided a $50,000 grant in support of the program in 2002.

The events have even taken on the air of a coastal Woodstock in some areas with volunteers who choose not to go head-to-head with the muck staying onshore to stage elaborate cookouts and refreshment stands at boat ramps for returning crews. Along parts of the Texas coast, CCA volunteers cooked out over giant barbecue pits and fed crab trap retrievers throughout the day.

The success in Texas convinced other conservationists along the Gulf Coast to start abandoned crab trap pick-ups in their area.

In 2004, CCA Louisiana joined forces with commercial crabbers and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries personnel to make the inaugural Derelict Crab Trap Removal Project an overwhelming success. More than 80 CCA Louisiana members removed 3,410 abandoned crab traps from the waters surrounding Cocodrie, Pointe-aux-Chenes, Golden Meadow and Montegut. The number of traps collected in that one day far exceeded the counts for any single day in other Gulf states, and was limited to an area less than one-tenth the size of the entire coastal zone.

“We haven’t even scratched the surface yet, after two years,” says CCA Louisiana Conservation Committee Chairman Bill Bass.

The clean-ups have gotten personal for Bass. After the first event in 2004, he was backing his boat out of its stall and immediately ran into what he calls the biggest crab trap in the world, wrapping the contraption around both motors.

“It is hard but gratifying work to get rid of these things,” he says. “It’s like cutting your grass because you get immediate satisfaction from seeing what you have accomplished. These events are making a huge difference in the marsh.”

CCA Louisiana supplies much of the manpower, but Bass gives much of the credit for the program to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries which organizes the events and posts notices warning commercial crabbers to get their gear out of the water during the closed season or else. He even gives a little credit to his CCA counterparts in Texas for devising a grappling hook device designed to keep workers in their boats and out of the mud.

“This is a coast-wide problem and it is great that CCA is helping to organize a coast-wide response. We are making a difference, but it’s clear we need keep at it to really reverse the damage these ghost traps have caused,” he said.

HERO OF CONSERVATION

For his work in establishing the crab-trap cleanup project with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Luster was nominated earlier this year for Field & Stream magazine’s Heroes of Conservation Award.

The Heroes of Conservation Award was created to recognize sportsmen dedicated to the protection of fish and wildlife habitat. Nominations were collected from all over the country and were reviewed by a panel of Field & Stream editors and conservation leaders. Luster’s victory was announced at an awards ceremony in New York City that also acclaimed the work of five other conservationists. All finalists were featured in the October 2006 issue of Field & Stream.

“Ronnie’s efforts did more than remove thousands of destructive abandoned crab traps,” said CCA President David Cummins. “His drive and determination have created a real legacy in conservation that will carry on for years.”

The legacy of this conservation project and the visionary who started it are a testament to what can be accomplished for conservation. Luster’s name has become synonymous with conservation and his desire to see the proper management of Texas’ crab population has earned him the respectful nickname, “The Crab Man.”

Thanks to the Crab Man, crabs and coastal life in Texas and all along the Gulf Coast are not likely to see a death trap every 14.4 feet ever again.