Saltwater Marketing, LLC Partners with University of Maine on a Lobster Ground Line Recycling Project
Contact: Patricia Pinto, President, Saltwater Marketing, LLC, 207-321-2109
ORONO, Maine — University of Maine engineers will work with Saltwater Marketing, LLC, an affiliate of the Lobster Institute at UMaine, to develop recycling options for used lobster trap lines. The project will get underway as Maine lobstermen consider replacing commonly used trap lines, also known as ground lines, in an effort to protect endangered right whales.
Ground lines are designed to float and thus reduce the chances of snagging on rocks and other obstacles on the sea floor. However, as they hover over the ocean bottom, such lines can present a threat to right whales. Lobstermen are looking at the possibility of replacing ground lines with heavier rope that, since it stays on the sea floor, has a lower chance of entangling the whales.
Saltwater Marketing has received a $20,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s (NFWF) National Whale Conservation Fund to support its Lobster Ground Line Buyback and Recycling (ME) Project. The Lobster Institute, the Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center (AEWC) at UMaine and the National Marine Fisheries Service, Protected Resource Division, will assist.
Scientists and engineers working on the project will:
1) Identify lobster ground line reclamation solutions that are practical to implement and support the need to prevent potential entanglement of large whales along Maine’s coastline.
2) Ensure that float rope that comes out of service is recycled or reused and kept out of Maine landfills.
3) Identify new uses for recycled lobster ground line.
Lobstermen have traditionally used polyolefin “float rope” to link traps with each other and with a buoy on the sea surface. The National Marine Fisheries Service estimates that 5 million pounds of float rope is currently used in Maine as ground line in the lobster industry.
Saltwater Marketing has contracted with UMaine’s AEWC to develop processing techniques for reutilizing the rope. Researchers will explore techniques to clean and process the rope into a usable form and determine the workability of the material in conventional plastic processing equipment.
Engineers will use extrusion and injection molding equipment to study the manufacturing and testing of prototype materials. The AEWC will examine both pure plastic and wood plastic composites for use in consumer products.
The Lobster Institute will serve as a liaison to the lobster industry and assist in the coordination of the project.
The institute conducts communications, outreach, research and education focused on protecting, conserving and enhancing the lobster resource and lobster fishing as an industry and as a way of life.
Saltwater Marketing, LLC, a Maine limited liability company, was founded in 2002. The company serves as the exclusive commercialization arm of the Lobster Institute.