Have you found any fishing gear or ghost net around the coast?
Fishing nets and other fishing tools that are left off the coasts are a constant threat for the marine life. All people who find fishing gears or ghost nets and other abandoned fishing tools in the water can collaborate in the new campaign launched by the Catalan Federation of Submarine Activities (FECDAS) and the experts from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute of the University of Barcelona (IRBio) to improve the protection of the biodiversity in ocean ecosystems.
Fishing nets and other fishing tools that are left off the coasts are a constant threat for the marine life. All people who find fishing gears or ghost nets and other abandoned fishing tools in the water can collaborate in the new campaign launched by the Catalan Federation of Submarine Activities (FECDAS) and the experts from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute of the University of Barcelona (IRBio) to improve the protection of the biodiversity in ocean ecosystems.
A constant trap for the marine life
Stuck in seafloors, fishing gears and lost nets can trap organisms for years -the effect of the so-called ghost fishing- and create a negative impact on ocean ecosystems (in particular, on fish and benthic organisms). Also, the fish that get entangled can be a deadly trap for marine birds that fish (cormorants). In some cases, these can generate risky situations for the boats (nets can get stuck on the boatʼs propellers), and for scuba divers.
The campaign to find all Lost Fishing Gears (APP) or ghost nets in the Catalan coast wants to raise awareness on the real impact of these nets regarding the marine ecosystems, species and habitats. This initiative, open to anyone who wants to participate, wants to create a map with places where there are ghost nets and value their impact on the ecosystem, within the project “Evitem la pesca fantasma” (Stop ghost fishing), with the support from the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Catalan Government.
This project, launched in 2015 by the UB-IRBio experts in collaboration with the Natural Park in Montgrí, Illes Medes and Baix Ter, has spread around different places in the coast of Catalonia in order to stop the environmental impact of ghost fishing. In this context of protecting the marine biodiversity, the UB-IRBio team also launched a website to find and take back the abandoned fishing tools in the coasts. In addition, the Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries provides an online address: (protecciomarina@gencat.cat).
The first protocol to take ghost nets out and protecting the marine environment
Once the lost fishing tools are found in the seafloors, trying to take these back are difficult operations so as to avoid an impact on the seafloor and the trapped species. This is why, in March 2018, the Protocol for the extraction of lost fishing gears in the Catalan coast was released -the first in Catalonia to stop the effects of ghost fishing.
This paper defines the bases to take the nets and fishing gears out and is led by the lecturer Bernat Hereu, from the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences and IRBio, and coordinated by Joan Ylla, head of the Section of Protection of the Littoral and Marine Environment in the Directorate General of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the Catalan Government.