Mass. wants to clean up ‘ghost’ fishing equipment

Sea turtle trapped by abandoned fishing net.

Abandoned fishing gear on the beach.

 Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com

“Ghost gear’’ -- abandoned ropes, traps and other fishing equipment on the sea floor --  entangles and kills marine life and makes a mess when it washes up on the shore.

So Massachusetts has  commendably enacted a new law that grants the state more  authority to remove the gear from the coastal waters over which it has jurisdiction, which means  out to three miles from the shore. It has often been hamstrung in dealing with this problem because the stuff, though abandoned, has been treated as private property.

Under the new law, the state Division of Marine Fisheries will develop new regulations to allow for its  removal without so much red tape. This will save a lot of animals, from whales down, and will, over time, boost fishing stocks, especially of such groundfish as cod, flounder and haddock.