Marine Life & Conservation
Charity shocked to discover drowned sea birds caught in ghost nets
The ocean conservation charity Ghost Fishing UK discovered four drowned sea birds, identified as cormorants, caught up in a lost fishing net in Lyme Bay.
The charity of volunteer scuba divers responds to reports of lost fishing gear known as ‘ghost gear’ from divers and fishermen, by surveying and then removing the lost gear which continues to fish, unseen.
Cormorants are common diving birds that dive beneath the waves to catch their food, but unfortunately can succumb to getting tangled in fishing nets.
Lost fishing gear is a global problem, with an estimated 640,000 lost into the oceans each year. Locally, it can have a significant impact on the local wildlife, ocean habitats and it’s not just fish that succumb to the hidden threat.
Fred Nunn, trustee, and operations officer for the charity explains: “We received reports from Jessica Hannah at Teign dive Centre of a gill net across the wreck of the Galicia, so we quickly put a team together. We were worried about the weather being near the end of season, but we found the net and the trapped animals.”
The divers soon came across four dead cormorants. The diving sea birds were tangled in a lost gill net which was strewn across the breadth of the wreck. The divers also came across a trapped pollack and Ballan wrasse which were both still alive and freed from the net. Edible crabs and lobsters were among the trapped sea life and in total, 11 animals were freed but another 8 had died in the ghost net.
The charity raises money from public donations and campaigns to clean up lost fishing gear from UK waters. This year Ghost Fishing UK won the Sustainability Award at the Fishing News Awards in Aberdeen for their work and cooperation with the fishing community.
Trustee and diver Christine Grosart said: “We are slowly gaining the trust of the fishing community, but we still have a long way to go. Our charity is not anti-fishing, and we want the fishing community to prosper, whilst maintaining a healthy ecosystem. We encourage engagement from the fishermen, and we really want them to tell us when they lose nets like this, so that we can remove them from the sea much sooner and stop the ghost fishing cycle in its tracks”.
Ghost Fishing UK has an online reporting system for both divers and fishermen to report any losses which they can do anonymously.
“In the case of lost strings of pots, we can often get these back to their owners,” Christine explains. “But in the case of nets, these are often too badly damaged to be used again, so we get them recycled where we can.”
It is generally accepted that fishing gear is not lost deliberately and is often the result of storms, snags on the seabed or being run over by other vessels.
Fishermen can report any lost nets to the charity here: www.ghostfishing.co.uk/fishermans-reporting
Jessica Hannah from Teign Diving Centre was very happy to welcome the charity for their first mission on board Seaquest:
“The Galicia is one of our most regularly used dive sites and is full of life. It was heart-breaking to find a ghost net hanging over the wreck and entangling everything that crossed its path – a real killer of a net.” Said Hannah.
“Having Ghost Fishing UK out to clear this away, we’re so thankful for their help with this. Great to know the net can’t harm anything else down there, and we’re all so pleased to have had such a professional organisation to sort it out.”
You can follow the work of Ghost Fishing UK on their YouTube Channel, blogs and across all social media platforms. All donations to the charity go directly into paying for dive boats so the volunteers can continue cleaning up even more ghost gear.
The Ocean Cleanup, the global non-profit project, has removed a verified all-time total of ten million kilograms (22 million lbs.) of trash from oceans and rivers around the world – approximately the same weight as the Eiffel Tower.
To complete its mission of ridding the oceans of plastic, The Ocean Cleanup uses a dual strategy: cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) to remove the plastic already afloat in the oceans, while stopping the flow of plastic from the world’s most polluting rivers.
Through cleaning operations in the GPGP and in rivers in eight countries, the cumulative total of trash removed has now surpassed ten million kilograms. This milestone demonstrates the acceleration of The Ocean Cleanup’s impact, while underlining the astonishing scale of the plastic pollution problem and the need for continued support and action.
While encouraging for the mission, this milestone is only a staging point: millions more tons of plastic still pollute our oceans and The Ocean Cleanup intends to continue learning, improving and innovating to solve this global catastrophe.
This announcement comes as governments from around the world meet to continue negotiations to develop a new legally binding instrument to end plastic pollution at INC4 in Ottawa, Canada. Representatives of The Ocean Cleanup will be in attendance and the organization will be urging decision-makers to collaborate towards a comprehensive and ambitious global treaty which addresses plastic at all stages of its life cycle and in all marine environments worldwide, including in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
It is encouraging to see that the need for remediation is reflected in the various options for potential treaty provisions. It is essential that the final treaty contains clear targets for the remediation of legacy plastic pollution, and reduction of riverine plastic emissions.
Tackling plastic pollution requires innovative and impactful solutions. The treaty should therefore incentivize the innovation ecosystem by fostering innovations that make maximal use of data, technology and scientific knowledge – such as those designed and deployed by The Ocean Cleanup.
‘After many tough years of trial and error, it’s amazing to see our work is starting to pay off – and I am proud of the team who has brought us to this point.’ said Boyan Slat, Founder and CEO of The Ocean Cleanup. ‘While we still have a long way to go, our recent successes fill us with renewed confidence that the oceans can be cleaned.’
The Ocean Cleanup was founded in 2013 and captured its first plastic in 2019, with the first confirmed catch in the GPGP coming soon after the deployment of Interceptor 001 in Jakarta, Indonesia. After surpassing one million kilograms of trash removed in early 2022, the non-profit project has since progressed to the third iteration of its GPGP cleaning solution, known as System 03, and a network of Interceptors currently covering rivers in eight countries, with more deployments set for 2024.
About The Ocean Cleanup
The Ocean Cleanup is an international non-profit organization that develops and scales technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. They aim to achieve this goal through a dual strategy: stemming the inflow via rivers and cleaning up the legacy plastic that has already accumulated in the ocean. For the latter, The Ocean Cleanup develops large-scale systems to efficiently concentrate the plastic for periodic removal. This plastic is tracked and traced through DNV’s chain of custody model to certify claims of origin when recycling it into new products. To curb the tide via rivers, The Ocean Cleanup has developed Interceptor™ solutions to halt and extract riverine plastic before it reaches the ocean. Founded in 2013 by Boyan Slat, The Ocean Cleanup now employs a broadly multi-disciplined team of approximately 140. The foundation is headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
For more information, visit: theoceancleanup.com and follow @theoceancleanup on social media.
Marine Life & Conservation
Steve Backshall to headline Shark Trust’s flagship event: For the Love of Sharks
Join a host of amazing, shark loving, speakers including Steve Backshall and the Shark Trust team for an evening celebrating shark conservation at the Royal Geographical Society in London this November.
Date: 29th November 2024
Time: 6-10pm
Location: Royal Geographical Society, London
Tickets: https://www.sharktrust.org/Event/flos24
The event will be a celebration of all things shark. Those lucky enough to get hold of tickets will hear from engaging guest speakers with a passion for sharks.
The line-up includes (*subject to change if unforeseen circumstances arise)
Steve Backshall: One of television’s busiest presenters, BAFTA award-winning wildlife expert Steve has been passionate about the wild world ever since he was young.
Steve’s impressive TV career has taken him all around the world, investigating a wide array of species and environments. Steve has filmed over 100 hours of children’s wildlife programmes with the BAFTA award winning Deadly 60 franchise and recently, with Sky Nature, for his new series ‘Whale with Steve Backshall’. He has been a patron for the Shark Trust for 10 years.
Simon Rogerson: is a photojournalist specialising in natural history, diving and the sea.
He is editor of SCUBA magazine, the official journal of the British Sub-Aqua Club. Simon started his career as a crime reporter but gravitated towards his ‘less depressing’ interest in underwater exploration, joining the staff of DIVE magazine in 1999. In 2005 he was named ‘Editor of the Year’ in the PPA’s Independent Publishing Awards. Simon also works as a freelance writer, contributing frequently to the Sunday Times and Telegraph, in addition to BBC Wildlife, Esquire, and a host of international diving magazines. He is the author of a book, Dive Red Sea, published by Ultimate Sports. Now based in Berkshire, Simon has been a Patron of the Shark Trust for 20 years.
More speakers to be announced soon. Head to the Shark Trust website to learn more.
The evening will also allow guests the final chance to see the Oceanic 31, shark art exhibition. Some of the artwork will be auctioned/raffled at the event, while the rest will be auctioned online to raise money for the Shark Trust Oceanic Programme.
For the Love of Sharks is an evening with something for everyone who is interested and fascinated by sharks. Join the Shark Trust, their Patrons, Trustees and Staff, along with a host of supporters for this celebration of shark conservation.
For more information or to buy a ticket: https://www.sharktrust.org/Event/flos24
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