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Do you know what’s scarier than haunted houses and horror stories? Abandoned fishing gear left to spend eternity in the ocean and destroy the wild world of marine life!
The sea and ocean have always been a source of nutrition for humanity. And the main resource was fish. Which is caught on an industrial scale not with a fishing rod, but with nets. Which are often lost, damaged, or torn.
To increase the service life of the nets, natural materials such as hemp, linen, or sisal (which had a short lifespan and decomposed rather quickly in water) were replaced by synthetic materials (the replacement process began in the 60s of the last century). These are mainly nylon, polypropylene, and polyethylene. However, the longevity of the material did not play into the hands of the environment; modern nets, for one reason or another, will take 400-600 years to decompose once they are at the bottom of the ocean.
And throughout their lives, drifting downstream or lying on the bottom, they will ruthlessly and senselessly catch and kill anyone who gets into them.
Are only fish in danger?
The worst part is that not only small fish get caught in the ghost nets.
Sadly, even large marine animals cannot escape from this trap. Harbor porpoises, seals, and fur seals see entangled fish (food) in the nets and instinctively head for them as if they were bait, and they themselves become victims of the nets.
Harbor porpoises are not cute domestic rodents, they are an animal weighing 50-60 kg from the mammalian family, a representative of the cetacean order.
Harbor porpoises get caught in ghost nets because of the way they navigate, these small whales use echolocation like bats. But the nets are made of too thin nylon, which reflects a very weak echo, making the net invisible to the whale.
For the same reasons, larger whales, dolphins, and killer whales are caught in the nets.
Who else suffers from ghost nets
You can do without words here, just look at the photos.
Seal
Harbor seal pup
Sea lion with a mesh collar
Seabirds are not protected either
Ruthless statistics
- According to World Animal Protection (WAP, WSPA), more than 136,000 whales, dolphins, seals, and turtles are caught in ghost gear every year.
- Ghost fishing is responsible for a 30% decline in the population of some fish.
- The loss of equipment is four times more likely to kill marine animals than other forms of marine debris combined.
- More than 70% of macroplastics (large plastic pieces) in the ocean are associated with fishing.
- Decomposition of nets could take over 600 years 344 species at risk of being caught in nets
- Of these, 161 species are mammals, turtles, whales and seabirds.
The scale of the disaster
It is estimated that about 640,000 tons (180,000 filled buses) of ghost gear enter our oceans every year – more than one ton every minute.
By 2020, there will be 80 million (80,000,000) tons of plastic waste in the world’s oceans. Of this number, 30 to 50% are ghost gear.
Another problem with ghost nets is microplastic. The nets decompose over time and small particles fall into the water, where fish take it for food and eat it. Already 2/3 of all fish species in the Northeast Atlantic have microplastic particles in their stomachs. 10% of the microplastics in the world’s oceans come from nets and then enter the food chain through fish, and it is possible that microplastics are in your body.
How to save the world?
In September 2015, the World Animal Protection Organization created the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) to publicize the problem.
Some countries are now even passing laws to recycle fishing nets, but the main burden of saving the world has fallen on the shoulders of various non-profit organizations and foundations. Who are quite successfully trying to save the planet by fishing nets.
Alternative equipment materials and practices. Use biodegradable materials for nets, and use GPS or other gear tracking systems.
Fishing nets are often made of high-quality plastic to ensure sufficient reliability and durability, which makes it possible to reuse them in further processing. NGOs such as Healthy Seas are helping to connect the net collection project with fiber producers to reuse the materials. Zhyva makes swimsuits, leggings, and many high-quality sportswear from such recycled gear.
