Ghost Fishing Damaging Ocean Life, New Report Claims

Fishing nets dropped in the world’s seas have the potential to continue “ghost fishing” for many months and, therefore, pose an increasing risk to ocean biodiversity, a new report has stated.

The report was produced by two strands of the United Nations - UNEP (the U.N Environment Programme) and FAO (the Food and Agriculture Organisation. 

Ocean Pollution

It highlighted how, each year, approximately 640,000 tonnes of fishing equipment were being discarded, making up about a tenth of overall ocean pollution.

Many situations can occur during which fishing nets can become separated from the boats to which they are attached.  These include the impacts of bad weather (which can make them rip), coral reefs (on which they can get stuck) and of other types of fishing equipment (which they can become permanently wrapped in and around).  All of these kick-start the process of so-called “ghost fishing”, where the nets fish of their own accord, trapping animals such as whales and turtles for years on end.

Impact of Ghost Fishing on Environment

The UN’s report provided no information on the actual impact of ghost fishing on the environment – this, according to UNEP’s David Osborn, would be “very difficult to estimate.”

"But we know that it's affecting fish take and it also represents a problem in terms of navigational hazards, like by fouling propellers”, Osborn added, in comments made to news agency Reuters.

Seventeen years ago, a drift net ban was enforced.  This measure, according to the study, has had some effect.  Regardless, fishing nets and other material “will continue to accumulate and the impacts on marine ecosystems will continue to get worse if the international community doesn't take effective steps to deal with the problem of marine debris as a whole”, assistant director-general at the FAO, Ichiro Nomura, explained.

To remedy the situation, the report advocated implementing measures like financial incentives for fishing crews that transported unusable or unwanted fishing nets back to dry land, or developing new fishing net technology allowing them to dissolve naturally over time, rather than potentially endangering the variety of animals and plants present in the sea. 

To some degree, biodegradable fishing nets are already in use, while some nets are also engineered to let turtles swim free.