New Greenpeace report reveals the deadly impact of ghost gear

An estimated 640,000 tonnes of abandoned or lost fishing equipment, or ‘ghost gear’, enter the ocean every year, equivalent in weight to more than 50 thousand double-decker buses. In total, they make up around 10% of the plastic waste in our oceans, entangling and killing marine life, warns a new Greenpeace Germany report, Ghost gear: the abandoned fishing nets haunting our oceans. 

The report comes as Greenpeace ship, Arctic Sunrise is surveying Mount Vema,  a biodiverse seamount in the Atlantic, 1,000 kilometers off the coast of South Africa, where the remains of the once active fishing industry can still be found. 

Speaking from the expedition at Mount Vema, Thilo Maack, of Greenpeace’s Protect the Oceans campaign, said: “Long after its initial use, this fishing gear goes on killing and maiming marine life, and polluting even remote ecosystems like the Mount Vema seamount. We have seen an amazing underwater world full of life and colours here. It’s utterly grim to see the legacy of destructive fishing in such a remote location like this.

“Even the Tristan Lobster, an iconic species of Mount Vema, that was fished to the brink of extinction twice is now showing signs of population recovery, thanks to a ban on bottom fishing being implemented here. This shows how oceans have an amazing ability to regenerate. But to properly recover and thrive into the future, Mount Vema and its unique ecosystem need to be completely off-limits to harmful human activities. The current protections for ecosystems in international waters are clearly not enough.”

The “Ghost Gear” report shows that 6% of all nets used, 9% of all traps, and 29% of all longlines (fishing lines that are several kilometers long) remain as pollution at sea. Not only does old fishing waste go on killing marine life, but it also seriously damages underwater habitats. Seamounts are particularly affected because they are often heavily fished due to the range of wildlife living around them. 

Greenpeace is calling for stronger action against deadly ghost gear to be implemented, including agreement of a strong Global Ocean Treaty at the United Nations that could protect at least 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, by putting it off-limits to harmful human activities, including industrial fishing.

Photo and video:

For a free-to-use collection of the expedition to Seamount Vema see here

Notes:

[1] Download Ghost gear: the abandoned fishing nets haunting our oceans report here

[2] Greenpeace and scientists are calling for a Treaty that can create a network of ocean sanctuaries covering at least a third of the global oceans by 2030. For more information, see: Protect the Global Oceans: Why We Need a Global Ocean Treaty. For a detailed policy briefing see here. 

[3] Pole to Pole Expedition: Greenpeace is sailing from the Arctic to the Antarctic, undertaking research and investigations to highlight threats facing the oceans and to campaign for a Global Ocean Treaty covering all seas outside of national waters. Map of the ‘Pole to Pole’ route. See contacts below for expedition inquiries, including for media interested in joining the ship on-board. 

[4] Thilo Maack is a diver, marine biologist and an oceans campaigner at Greenpeace Germany.