ENTANGLED: GHOST GEAR

Ghost nets are the discarded nets in the ocean left accidentally or intentionally. The ghost gear includes the fishing nets, pots, traps, fishing lines, hooks and ropes. The problem lies in the fact that it is in a significant amount in the seabed. The problem with the ghost gear is that it not only lasts long since it is made from plastics, it also keeps doing its operation for which it was made, that is catching aquatic life. 

Image source: Canadian Geographic

According to WAP (World Animals Protection) committee 1 lakh whales, dolphins, seals are stuck to death or injuries in these gears per year. The UN estimates that the discharge of this ghost gear is still increasing at an alarming rate of 640,000 tonnes per year, which is roughly around 1 ton per minute. 

This heavy discharge ensures the fact that the 10 % of the total plastic waste in the ocean is the fishing gears lost or discharged. Loss to the marine environment can be estimated by the fact that in 2018  more than 300 turtles were killed stuck in the fishing gears in Mexico, the periphery of the USA. 

Previous Symposiums 

The issue is not new. Archives show that the first ever talk was done nearly 35 years ago in the 16th session of FAL in 1985. Till then, a lot of NGOs and local communities have taken their shoulders up for the change. The problem with the ghost gear is pretty simple to understand. The plastic content enables the gear to last long (approximately 600 years and then decomposing into microplastics) and also it continues to catch up the fishes and other aquatic life. 

The cycle is pretty simple to understand. A small fish gets caught in the net attracting big fishes and thus a very huge fish ends up being caught in the ghost nets and ropes. Which gives them either death from suffocation or everlasting injuries. Gill nets are the worst in these scenarios. They are designed to catch the floating fish’s head or gill area. When left in the ocean this wall of drift net or gill net catches up the fish or turtles which either kills them by fatigue of dragging the net or extreme wound infections. 

In 2019, extremely endangered species North Atlantic Right Whale was killed due to these nets and thus in the US and several other countries around the world have banned the production of these drift nets. 

North Atlantic Right whale entangled in Ghost gear 
Image courtesy: Radio Canada International

What needs to be done

Semi-Biodegradable and Bio friendly fishing gears: 

This particular solution can not stop the nets from hunting the marine life but it can shorten the lifespan of the nets. The semi-biodegradable nets are basically composite materials and have some bio friendly polymers composition. The composition is some synthetic polymers polybutylene succinate (PBS) resin or polybutylene adipate-co-terephthalate (PBAT) resin. The semi biodegradable quality enables the economic feasibility of the fishing gears and thus helps in degradation of the fishing gears at the sea bed. 

Providing Incentives: 

One of the best ways is to provide the incentives to the fishing communities to bring back the damaged cables or nets and other items which are thrown overboard to amplify the Ghost fishing. Similar approaches have been applied in South Korea from 2003, the ghost nets are received and money is given hand to hand as per the weight of the ghost cable.  

Image Source: Olive Ridley Project

Segregation and cleansing 

Governments across the world must provide the maritime communities, some incentives weather in the form of money or any other goodies so as to create an awareness among the people associated with the maritime world like fishing communities and diving communities to collect those plastics which they find in the ocean. Nearly 2 to 3 years ago in a movie presented by oceanweek.eu presented the fact that fishing communities many a times encounter with the ghost gear and when approximated it comes to be in 60 to 40 ratio, later being plastic items. The fishers thus can be educated and provided those important incentives to bring back that 40%, as it also makes a change. 

Another idea is to launch attractive programs as South Korea launched back in 2003 the “Derelict gear buyback program” or “Marine debris buyback program”  in which the government provided fishers the money in return of the ghost gear they provided. Similar programs can be launched for all kinds of marine plastic debris. Not only this, a separate program launched by NOAA allows the fishers to deposit their discarded ghost gear to the ports which accept them at no cost and thus facilitates the fishers to deposit that material which could be a pollution in upcoming years.  

(Sources : The Hindu, Insider, The Dodo, National Geographic)