I recently purchased two Danielson folding crab traps from Cabela's (on sale $20 ea.)

On the top there are two round holes, I take it they are escape holes so that if you lose the trap the crabs can exit by way of those holes.

On both traps there is one hole that has four short pieces of what looks like shoelace that are tied on the edge of the hole. (The other two holes do not have any strings at all.) They do not go across the hole so are not preventing crab from escape. What purpose are they?

In the past I understood you had to tie a string in an x fashion over the hole that would disintegrate over time.

Anyone have any idea of what these four short strings are for?