Ghost Trap Technology Initiative
Six technologies. One mission. We're uniting smart buoys, AI detection, underwater robotics, drones, sonar mapping, and recovery tools into a single end-to-end system that finds and removes every derelict crab trap before it can keep killing.
The One Goal
End ghost fishing in Florida waters by locating and recovering every derelict trap.
The Six Technology Pillars
Sure Buoy
A passive 3-detection buoy system that deploys when a trap is lost — triggered by boat strike, cut line, or too many days in the water — so the trap can be located and recovered. Design is in the planning stage with a provisional patent filed.
Ghost Trap AI
Computer-vision models trained on underwater video scans, boat-mounted side-scan sonar, Garmin LiveScope live scanning, ROV video, aerial imagery, and LiDAR — using AI to determine whether objects in the water are derelict traps, or other large hazards that endanger wildlife, the environment, and watercraft.
Underwater ROV
Rugged, lagoon-ready ROVs that find, inspect, document, and retrieve ghost traps from the murky bottom where divers can't safely reach — turning the lagoon floor into a searchable, scannable workspace.
Drone Detection
Aerial drone surveys paired with AI to spot surface debris, lost buoys, and shoreline accumulation across miles of coastline in a single pass.
Sonar Mapping
Side-scan sonar surveys that build a live, geo-referenced map of suspected ghost traps on the lagoon floor for efficient recovery routing.
Smart Recovery Tools
Grippers, lift systems, and field logging tools that make recovery safe, verifiable, and fast — with every removal geo-tagged and tracked.
How it all connects
Sure Buoys prevent traps from becoming lost in the first place. Sonar Mapping and Drone Detection find the ones that already are. Ghost Trap AI confirms targets from the imagery. Underwater ROVs and Smart Recovery Tools retrieve them — and every removal feeds back into the map until the lagoon is clear.