hopeinart

[hopeinart]

Hanne Zaruma

[hopeinart]

This photographer understood the assignment.

[hopeinart]

"Florida native Neill Holland became a charter captain at age 18. In 2015, after traveling internationally for a decade, he returned to St. Petersburg, Florida, to resume his fishing charter operation with his partner Danielle Dawley. 

Time and again on their charters, Dawley and Holland came across derelict traps, also known as ghost traps. 

Ghost traps are fishing traps that have been swept away in storms and currents or simply abandoned over time. 

Once lost, these rusted traps often pose risks to coral reefs below and passing boats above — all while trapping and killing marine life that die long before they are pulled to the surface. 

Those decaying fish, in turn, attract more sea animals into the trap, starting the cycle anew.

After ghost traps continued cropping up in their day-to-day, Dawley and Holland founded Ocean Aid 360: a conservation organization that works with fishing industry professionals, community volunteers, and government agencies to find, retrieve, and recycle marine debris — including ghost traps.

Their most popular program? Ghost trap rodeos: fishing tournaments that reward entrants for salvaging abandoned fishing gear.

“We started in October of 2018 through a grant from NOAA, which enabled us to hold seven tournament-style marine debris events around Tampa Bay,” Holland told the Port Charlotte Sun in mid-July. 

“In that first year, our target was 15,000 pounds of marine debris. We ended up collecting 27,000 pounds, and had fabulous numbers of community members coming out to participate,” he said. 

“Since then, we’ve worked all over Florida and the Bahamas, with more than 60 event days and about 60,000 pounds of marine debris collected — including more than 8,200 derelict traps.”

The latest ghost trap rodeo — hosted on July 19 — pulled in 4,000 pounds of trash, including 128 ‘ghost traps,’ from the Tampa Bay. 

Two minutes into the event, Holland was already reeling in a ghost trap. 

“This is a textbook example of a derelict crab trap,” Holland told the Tampa Bay Times. “It’s been left out, and as you can see it’s pretty darn crusty and rusted.”

Holland estimates that 10% of all traps placed in the water become ghost traps.

“It’s a recurring problem here, and we really have to stay on top of it,” said Peter Clark, the president and founder of Tampa Bay Watch —  one of many local organizations that helped host the ghost trap rodeo competition.

“We’re helping to protect fish and wildlife, we’re taking marine debris out of the bay, and it’s a great project to get the community involved to help restore and protect Tampa Bay.”

-via GoodGoodGood, July 28, 2025

[hopeinart]

A cockatoo broke our rocket. :(

Gonna need a tiny bit more context here bud

[hopeinart]

She doesn't even comprehend the idea of credit card debt

[hopeinart]

We are the first and quite possibly the only species able to predict our own extinction, and we are doing nothing about it

[hopeinart]

Hey guys something fucking bad happened

KOSA/the kids online safety act has been reintroduced into legislature after it passed Senate last year and then got snubbed. It is not unlike the bill that just passed in the UK a few weeks ago. If you don't want what happened in the UK to happen here, now would be a good time to vocally oppose it.

Here is a petition that can be signed by Americans. Attached to the petition is an easy tool that allows you to call and leave messages for your representatives. I have already done so. You can also email your representatives by searching for their name, most have message submission boards as well. This thing died once, it can die again.

Please sign/share the petition and contact your representatives.

[hopeinart]

who let biologists play dnd

[hopeinart]

[hopeinart]

Gigantic baby climbs her mother because another kid Looked at her :(((

[hopeinart]

“i’m a fearsome indestructible monster of lore whose one shocking weakness is fire” buddy everyone’s weakness is fire

[hopeinart]

me: We'll approach from the east, where their defenses are weakest

the commander: We should send a dozen men to the west side first, trick them into dividing their forces

the fell dragon that lives inside my head: (This is stupid. Let's just reduce the world to ash.)

me, out loud: We're not reducing the world to ash

commander: Okay.

[hopeinart]

this is, as the kids say, frying me (a glasses wearer)

[hopeinart]

[hopeinart]

Just helped a really lovely woman in her eighties who told me she’d been married for fifty nine years. I made an appropriate sound of awe only for her to scoff.

“It’s too long. Fifty nine years is too long to be married to someone. He’s just always there. Since I was twenty. You guys nowadays get to wait but we had to get married right away back then.”

“Before we retired I had some damn time to myself but now he’s just there. Watching golf.”

She shook her head, “We always said we wouldn’t turn into our parents but there he is, watching golf.” After another sigh she repeated, “It’s just too long.”

Placing bets on her husband mysteriously disappearing in the next year.

[hopeinart]

never "look inside" yourself btw i just tried it and there was already someone in there looking back it was so awkward

[hopeinart]

White-tailed deer can only be killed by The Amulet, but unfortunately for deer, the dastardly wizards at Ford Motor Company have placed a small fragment of The Amulet in the grill of every F150.