Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 814 is my conversation with Capt. Neill Holland, a Tampa Bay charter guide and the founder of Ocean Aid 360, a guide-led nonprofit that pulls derelict crab and lobster traps and other marine debris out of Florida's waters. Neill walks me through what ghost fishing actually is, how a chip-bag habit at a waterfront park turned into a federally funded cleanup operation, and how he convinced commercial watermen that recreational guides were on their side.
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Capt. Neill Holland is a Tampa Bay charter fishing guide who runs GoFishTampaBay and the founder of Ocean Aid 360, a guide-led nonprofit focused on removing abandoned fishing gear and marine debris from Florida's waterways. He has a background in federal grants administration for nonprofits, which he used to fund the organization's first cleanup events in 2018. He now leads cleanup operations from Tampa Bay and the Indian River Lagoon down to the Florida Keys.
Ghost fishing is what happens when a lost or abandoned trap keeps catching and killing marine life long after anyone is tending it. As Neill explains it, a fish or crab gets into a derelict trap, cannot get out, dies, and then becomes bait that draws in the next animal — a cycle that repeats unchecked. Crab traps, lobster traps, and stone crab traps left fishing through closed seasons are the main culprits, which is why Ocean Aid 360 targets them.
The Ghost Trap Rodeo is the tournament-style cleanup format Ocean Aid 360 built around Tampa Bay starting in 2018. After winning its first grant, the organization stood up seven Ghost Trap Rodeo events around the perimeter of Tampa Bay, roughly one every six weeks over the course of a year. Volunteers fan out by boat, kayak, paddleboard, and on foot to recover derelict traps and debris, turning a conservation chore into a competitive community event.
Carefully, and it took time. Neill describes commercial watermen showing up early on to challenge the project online, convinced that recreational anglers did not understand their world. Once they understood that Ocean Aid 360 values working fishing livelihoods and a clean, abundant fishery, many became allies. The group focuses retrieval on closed fishing seasons and only removes gear that is actively fishing when it should not be, and some commercial guys have even asked for a trap buyback program.
Ocean Aid 360 launched on its first grant in 2018 and was later invited by the NOAA Marine Debris Program and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to expand. That funding let the group run events from Apalachicola down to Key West and back up to Jacksonville, including the Indian River Lagoon from Titusville to Cocoa and ongoing cleanups around Key Haven near Key West.
Where possible, recovered gear is recycled rather than dumped. Neill describes working with environmental consulting partners such as Young Bear Environmental Consulting on the Florida side to process material. Some gear is harder to handle — stone crab traps carry roughly 35 pounds of concrete that recyclers cannot yet process, and branded or tagged traps create ownership headaches — which is part of why Neill supports a buyback model.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 814 with Capt. Neill Holland is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
Neill embodies an idea I keep coming back to — leaving the water better than you found it. He is not a full-time activist who wandered into fishing; he is a working Tampa Bay guide who saw a problem, realized he happened to have the grant-writing background to do something about it, and built a real organization out of it. I wanted him on because the ghost fishing problem is invisible to most anglers, and because the way he brought commercial and recreational people to the same table is a model for how conservation actually gets done. Press play in the YouTube player above to hear the whole story.
The origin story is smaller than you would expect. Neill watched someone close to him spend the back half of every lunch break picking up chip bags along the waterfront and stuffing them into a grocery sack. He realized his day-job experience in federal grants administration could turn that instinct into something funded and organized. They wrote their first proposal in 2018 and won it right out of the gate. Hear how that first grant became seven events in his own words.
This is the part most anglers never see. A trap gets lost or abandoned, a fish swims in and cannot get out, it dies, and then it becomes bait for the next animal — over and over, with nobody tending it. Neill explains why stone crab traps, lobster traps, and crab traps left fishing through closed seasons are the worst offenders, and why getting that ghost gear out matters for everything from hogfish to stone crabs. Listen to that section of the episode.
Early on, commercial watermen came into the comment threads under Ocean Aid 360's posts to blow the project up — convinced these recreational guys did not know what they were talking about. Neill does not gloss over that. He walks through how the relationship turned once the commercial side understood the group respects working fishing livelihoods and only pulls gear that is fishing illegally during closed seasons. Some of those same commercial fishermen now ask him for a trap buyback program. Press play in the YouTube player above.
Once the NOAA Marine Debris Program and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation got involved, the footprint exploded. Neill describes fanning volunteers out across the Indian River Lagoon from Titusville to Cocoa, running multi-day cleanups around Key Haven near Key West, and covering ground from Apalachicola to Jacksonville. He gets into the logistics of surveying hot spots ahead of time and sending people by boat, kayak, paddleboard, and on foot. Watch the full breakdown in the player above.
▶ Watch the full conversation on YouTube · 🎧 Listen now
Pulling traps out of the water is only half the battle — what you do with them after is its own puzzle. Neill explains how partners like Young Bear Environmental Consulting help process recovered material in Florida, and why some gear resists recycling entirely. Stone crab traps carry about 35 pounds of concrete that recyclers cannot yet handle, and branded or tagged traps create ownership problems. Hear why he thinks a buyback program is part of the answer.
The day after talking with Neill, what stuck with me was how ordinary the starting point was. One person picking up trash at lunch. A guy who happened to know how grants work. That is the whole machine that became Ocean Aid 360, and it is a reminder that the people who fix things are usually just the ones who decided to start.
The other thing I keep thinking about is the commercial-recreational divide he closed. Those two groups argue constantly, and Neill found the one thing they both want — a clean, abundant fishery — and built from there.
Listen to the whole conversation, and if you are anywhere near the Keys, he could use the hands.
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Capt. Neill Holland is a Tampa Bay charter fishing guide and the founder of Ocean Aid 360, a guide-led nonprofit dedicated to removing derelict fishing gear and marine debris from Florida's waterways. Drawing on a background in federal grants administration, he launched the organization in 2018 and built its signature Ghost Trap Rodeo cleanup events around Tampa Bay before expanding statewide with support from the NOAA Marine Debris Program and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. He continues to guide through GoFishTampaBay while leading cleanup operations from the Indian River Lagoon to the Florida Keys.
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