Some good advice in the other posts.

There have been some incidents of boat sustaining significant damage
in the Casco Bay area due to railroad spikes being tied into the gear.
The lobstermen would say they are weights to keep the rope between the
buoy and toggle down below the surface. The fact that they also can
batter a hole in the bottom of a boat and therefore make boaters more
careful about running over lobster gear is a side benefit.

I have a boat prone to fouling pot warp and only picked up one last
year. The lobsterman was using plastic jugs instead of proper buoys.
One got a hole in it and became waterlogged so the current dragged it
under where it couldn't be seen. It took a good hour and a lot of
hard work to get free.

--

Roger Long