Pulling the crab pot line aboard, up through my engine port, in ocean swells, or dangling myself in swells over the stern while trying to snag the line with a boat hook, while the crab pot acts as an anchor (requiring hauling the boat astern to the crab pot - provided the pot doesn't haul me overboard first) can be a difficult and dangerous process. And no, I am not going to try to back down on a line astern with the engine in ocean swells - while hauling it aboard through the engine port just inches away from my prop. As much as I might like fishermen, I'm not going to try to haul the line around to the bow or risk falling overboard or an entanglement with my prop.
I don't mind saving the fisherman's pot if I can do so without risking my life. Provided the crab pot isn't placed in a marked navigation channel, in which case it's as much a vessel trap as it is a crab trap. I have seen many of those around Half Moon Bay. Some clearly abandoned with what looks like years of overgrowth on the floats, meaning there's nothing but crab skeletons inside the traps. Archaeologists will be studying those non-biodegradable floats and line in a thousand years. There should be a maximum amount of time pots can be left in place, after which, people should be encouraged to pull up the abandoned traps, and if they are stuck on the bottom (which is probably why they were abandoned) to cut the lines. Maybe a bounty on cut and turned in abandoned traps and floats would help clean up the mess. By the way, the California Fish and Game code states that crab pots not serviced, or placed in a navigation channel, are a public nuisance.
The environmental laws prohibit discarding plastic in the ocean. Some of those (plastic) floats and (plastic) lines are clearly discarded. And the people who abandon them without removing as much of them as they can (at least the floats) - aren't fishing - they are littering.
As I write this, recreational season for Dungeness crab doesn't start until Nov. 1st, and commercial season doesn't start until Nov. 15th. There shouldn't be any crab pots anywhere. But take a cruise around Half Moon Bay, and you'll find enough of out-of-season pots to turn your cruise into a slalom course.
Maybe someday the technology and requirements will have lights attached to the floats so they can be seen at night. Meanwhile, there is nothing preventing fishermen from applying retroreflective tape to the floats - if they really care about vessels avoiding them at night.
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