How do fisherman catch only the fish they want?

Factual Questions
21

You also must remember you see only a very small fraction of the pots that are pulled up. I’m guessing less than 2% of the total pots are shown on tv.

Even so I’ve seen them one full of females that all had to be thrown back, they spun the pot around and flipped the launcher and shook them out into the ocean rather than on the table.

They sometimes catch fish, they use it for bait.

Once and a whole you see an empty pot pulled up and they show you a snail or starfish or even the wrong type of crab. But these are rare because you can kinda predict which type of crab will be where from years of experience.

22

Why would you assume “crab trap” is more correct than “crab pot”? A simple Google search indicates “crab pot” is preferred over “crab trap” by a margin of over 50%. I suppose the philistines may just out number the purists, but common usage counts for something.

23

‘Pot’ is short for ‘potential’. Crab pots are called so because originally they were ‘potential crab traps’ back in the days before they were refined to the point where they could exclude some of the things that might crawl in.

24

.

I am a liar.

:smiley:

25

To a regular guy like me I think of a device used to trap animals as a trap. But that is based on no special knowledge of the fishing industry.

I just remember the first time I saw the show thinking the term pot was not what I was expecting to hear.

26

You’re a pretty good one, though!

:smiley:

27

Oh now I think this is BS. The smaller Dungeness crab pots are round. The term crab pot is a historical term that has been carried on as the technology has advanced.

Please show some reference to pot as a shorthand for potential in regard to crab fishing.

28

See also Lobster pots:

29

He cited it here.

30

:smiley:

31

Sorry, I must be confused. I thought this was the General Questions section. Save comedy for the other threads.

32

Please read the Forum Rules:

(Reading the thread before posting is also helpful.)

33

It’s also the Straight Dope. There’s no problem with a bit of joking around, once the question has had some substantive responses.

34

Crab pot is more common than crab trap? I just moved away from Florida where the running joke was to get rid of a body is to put it in a crab trap.

I’m in the Blue Ridge Mountains now, not sure how we dispose of bodies here. Although I suspect coyotes and black bear figure prominently.

No, I have no particular reason for wanting to know how to ditch the bodies. I swear!

35

Hey, I have read the forum rules. I just think that if we are going into frivoluos territory it detracts from the idea of staying in General Questions, which should be the area of the straight facts.

Carry on as you see fit. :stuck_out_tongue:

36

When you say, if the boat is in the middle of the ocean the fish is discarded, I am assuming that means it’s thrown overboard into the sea.

Is this correct?

If so do gulls and dolphins follow these boats hoping to get a free meal. I realize gulls don’t live in the middle of the oceans but I was thinking maybe a tern or albatross is migrating and see the ship do this and then they learn “gee easy food.”

37

I’ve never seen it addressed but, on Deadliest Catch, the boats always seem to have a huge number of gulls following them, even if they’re far out to sea.

38

Albatrosses and other seabirds will follow ships over very long distances. Fishing boats are often surrounded by a cloud of gulls.

39

In the back hills, it’s pigs. Then you turn the pig, into bacon. Everyone wins. You get rid of your troubles, and turn it into bacon… and who doesn’t like bacon?