740,000km of fishing line and 14 billion hooks: we reveal just how much fishing gear is lost at sea each year

Sat, 29 Oct 2022 19:44:15 +1100

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://theconversation.com/740-000km-of-fishing-line-and-14-billion-hooks-we-reveal-just-how-much-fishing-gear-is-lost-at-sea-each-year-192024>

"Two per cent of all fishing gear used worldwide ends up polluting the oceans,
our new research finds. To put that into perspective, the amount of longline
fishing gear littering the ocean each year can circle the Earth more than 18
times.

We interviewed 450 fishers from seven of the world’s biggest fishing countries
including Peru, Indonesia, Morocco and the United States, to find out just how
much gear enters the global ocean. We found at current loss rates, in 65 years
there would be enough fishing nets littering the sea to cover the entire
planet.

This lost fishing equipment, known as ghost gear, can cause heavy social,
economic and environmental damage. Hundreds of thousands of animals are
estimated to die each year from unintentional capture in fishing nets. Derelict
nets can continue to fish indiscriminately for decades.

Our research findings help highlight where to focus efforts to stem the tide of
fishing pollution. It can also help inform fisheries management and policy
interventions from local to global scales."

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

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