Ghost Fishing, It's really as bad as it sounds

To start off, let’s first define what ghost fishing is. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “Ghost fishing is a term that describes what happens when derelict fishing gear continues to fish.”. Defining ghost fishing brings us to question, what is derelict fishing gear? Sometimes called ghost gear, it is any intentionally or accidentally abandoned lost fishing gear that, despite no longer being in use by fishermen, is still catching fish and other marine life. 

Derelict gear can be made up of 2 different types of gear- active fishing gear and passive fishing gear. Active gear is equipment that is actively being interacted with to be used. Examples of this type of gear include seine nets, hook and line,  trawl nets and other sorts of nets that are actively being towed.  The other type- passive gear- is gear that is set, left, and returned to later. Examples of passive fishing gear include trammel nets,  gill nets, crab pots, lobster traps, and floating nets.   

As anyone who has been fishing can tell you, fishing gear is expensive, even more so when it comes to commercial gear. Crab pots are relatively affordable around $100 for a decent one but other gear like the trammel and gill nets can be up to $8 per foot and up to 6,000 feet long. It might be hard to fathom why an individual or company would willingly toss out their gear. Some of the ghost gear is created unintentionally when large storms occur, the nets are lost at sea and are unretrievable. Other times the gear gets damaged and lost during use, and example of this would be a trawl net getting snagged on a rock or a torn on a sharp coral reef. Gear can also be lost due to negligence when old nets should be retired and replaced or when torn nets don’t get repaired as they should be- net maintenance takes time and a lot of patience. Unfortunately sometimes gear is intentionally discarded. Derelict gear isn’t just a little problem, it's a massive one! In 2020 the UN estimated 640,000 tons of fishing gear is discarded in the oceans every year, that’s the equivalent of 7,111 Boeing 747 airplanes! 

If you haven’t already guessed, ghost fishing is bad news. It contributes to plastic in the oceans, it continually catches marine species, damages ecosystems, is a threat to endangered species, and is a threat to individuals and companies trying to make a living on the water. 

We hear a lot of talk about ocean plastics and while a lot of it comes from waste, ghost gear is also a large contributor. In 2020 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released a study that found:

Each year 12 million tons of plastic trash goes into the ocean.  Of that, 10% or one half to 1 million tons is made up of fishing gear. We’ve all heard of the great pacific garbage patch, but did you know that approximately 46% of the garbage in it is nets, lines, and ropes?  As you may know, plastic pollution isn’t just limited to the surface, 85% of the trash on ocean ridges,  seamounts, on the seafloor, above the great pacific garbage patch is from fishing gear. According to another study from 2014 found:

70% of the plastic particles floating on the ocean’s surface, that were 20 centimeters or larger, were related to fishing. Of that, 58% was tied specifically to ghost fishing buoys.  

One of the reasons that nets and traps being used to catch fish and other species cause serious issues when they are discarded is because they continue to catch even after they have been discarded. They are even more dangerous and deadly when they have been abandoned. Fishing nets and gear never stop fishing unless they are removed from the water. When gear is lost, it will continue to trap its prey, but as the net stays in the water the captured prey will thrash around and in its weakened and dying state, will attract larger prey. The new predators will also get tangled in the nets web and the cycle of death will continue for the life of the net, which could be hundreds of years as plastic doesn’t break down rapidly. 

Lost nets and gear will continue to drift around unless something stops them. Just as rocks can cause snares and tear up nets, they can also stop the nets from drifting around in the ocean. Benthic rocky outcroppings aren’t the only thing that can stop them, coral reefs can as well. Coral reefs are already a valuable and threatened marine ecosystem, filled with life and fragile corals that can take thousands of years to grow. In the United States alone, NOAA estimates the economic value of coral reef services to be over $3,4,000,000! With numbers like that it's easy to see how a piece of ghost gear, that can be miles long, can be devastating if it gets stuck on a reef.

Normal fishing gear has adaptations like TEDs or Turtle Extruder Devices to help prevent the accidental capture of threatened and endangered species, but those adaptations don’t exist on ghost gear. According to a study of citizen science and conservation programs, 41% of Olive Ridley sea turtles near Sri Lanka were entangled in ghost nets in a single year. In 2018 there were 2 mass entanglements of Olive Ridleys on Mexican coasts resulting in the deaths of 413  endangered turtles. Sea turtles aren’t the only species getting caught in nets. A 2019 report by  World Animal Protection found the number of whales, sea turtles, seals, and dolphins that get trapped and die in ghost gear each year totals 136,000 individuals. 

In addition to ghost gear being detrimental to sensitive species, ocean habitats, and major contributors to ocean plastic, it can also have a negative impact on people who survive and make a living from fishing. Many of the oceans have been overfished and continue to be overfished as more and more nets are being added to the ocean to help make up for the loss of fish being caught.  As lost gear continues to fish, the gear itself becomes competition for the women and men who are fishing. Another concern they have to worry about is the gear itself. Lost nets and lines can be incredibly damaging to fishing equipment.   

With all the darkness surrounding ghost fishing, is there anything to be hopeful about? Ghost gear is a known issue, the more we are learning about it, the more solutions we have come up with to prevent and deal with it. There are organizations who search out and remove nets from the water while others find ways to repurpose the fishing materials. If this issue motivates you, consider supporting them through a donation or by sharing and talking about their work with others. Recreational anglers can make sure to recycle unwanted filament lines in recycling canisters near docks and piers. Commercial fishers can make sure to regularly check and repair damaged gear, either themselves or by hiring someone to help. NOAA has created a Marine Debris Program which can involve numerous parties, from individual citizen scientists reporting sighted marine debris to commercial operators who are looking for a place to drop off old and un-repairable gear. So far this program has collected 4 million pounds of gear from 56 different locations around the United States. Do a search to find out if there are any local laws and regulations you can help to support regarding ghost fishing and ghost gear. Since a lot of commercial fishing occurs in international waters, laws for change can be tricky to enforce, but make sure to stay up to date with the United Nations as they may help to put guidelines and regulations in place to help deal with ghost fishing.