This campaign has now closed
Ghost Fishing UK cleans up lost fishing gear with volunteer scuba divers, preventing lost fishing gear known as 'ghost gear' from entering our seas and saving our marine wildlife. Our team removes ghost gear from the ocean and it is then recycled or given back to the fishermen.
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Beneficiaries
Situation
Ghost Fishing UK removes lost fishing gear from the sea. This makes up almost half of the great pacific garbage patch. An estimated 640,000 tonnes of 'ghost gear' gets into the oceans each year. Lost fishing gear continues to catch and kill marine wildlife, traps large marine mammals, indefinitely, around the clock and the catch will never be landed. We work with fisheries to reduce and prevent lost fishing gear at source, removing ghost gear that has been reported to us and recycling it
Solution
To solve the problem at source, we build networks with fisheries and associations to gain information about lost fishing gear. We plan to implement a reporting system, to be used by fisheries, enabling Ghost Fishing UK to respond to lost ghost gear at the time it is lost. We currently respond to ghost gear reports from scuba divers for nets and pots that have been lost for an unknown period of time. Our trained divers then respond to these reports and remove the ghost gear to get it recycled.
