‘Ghost Nets’: How Lost and Abandoned Fishing Gear Is Destroying Marine Wildlife
ENVIRONMENT, 15 Jul 2019
12 Jul 2019 – Up to 800,000 tonnes of ghost fishing gear gets into oceans each year.
The amount of fishing gear remaining in the marine environment will continue to accumulate and the impacts on marine ecosystems will continue to get worse.
The sight of an abandoned fishing net trapping fish or strangling seals never comes as a surprise for B.C. commercial diver Bourton Scott.
Scott’s day job is beneath the ocean’s surface, inspecting underwater structures for different clients. But during nearly every dive, he comes across lost or discarded fishing material — or “ghost gear” — that is still snaring wildlife.
“When a net’s lost, it continually fishes — it doesn’t stop fishing,” said Scott. “[And] since the animals that are caught aren’t being harvested or removed, it baits more animals into the net.”
The result is “an ongoing death trap.”
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Tags: Animals, Environment, Marine pollution, Oceans
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