Ghost fishing and plastic pollution
In 2018, fishing gear (nets, traps, etc.) accounted for 27% of the plastic marine waste found on European beaches. At sea, they are at the origin of what is known as ghost fishing and continue to trap marine animals when they are lost or abandoned.
Lost or abandoned nets cause hecatombes in Breton waters. In June 2018, in Pleubian (22), more than 400 dead fish, mostly sandtiger sharks, were discovered trapped in an abandoned net in the Talbert Trench.
Another undesirable effect: under the effect of waves and UV rays, they break down into microplastics that marine animals can ingest. They thus affect the health of the entire food chain in the ocean.
How to participate in the rescence?
If you discover during a walk, dive or boat trip, fishing equipment stranded on the coast or lost at sea, take 2 minutes to go to the app or the Fish&Click web page.
Fill in the location, date, category of the material found and photograph it, if you can, before picking it up and throwing it in a tidal bin or trash can.
All this information will be centralized in a database. The more these citizen actions will be numerous, the more statistically solid and exploitable this database will be.
Developing biodegradable fishing equipment
In order to help professionals in the sector to practice more environmentally friendly fishing, Ifremer and 10 French and British university partners have launched the Indigo programme (INnovative fIshing Gear for Ocean). Their aim: to create biodegradable fishing equipment in the marine environment in order to reduce plastic pollution from fishing and aquaculture activities.
To this end, from September 2020, more than 300 fishermen will be involved in this study and test new environmentally friendly fishing tools.
