After a long-anticipated wait, Maldivian fishers from Gemanafushi Island collected the first of many ghost nets whilst fishing for tuna!
Working in collaboration with IPNLF and with funding from the Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions Award, fishers from Gemanafushi Island in the Maldives successfully retrieved the first ghost nets from the ocean, in November 2020. The funding was used to incentivize coastal fisheries in the Maldives to retrieve and land floating ghost gear encountered during their fishing trips.
Approximately 640,000 tonnes of gear is either lost or abandoned in the ocean every year!
Fishing gear like large nets, used by purse seine vessels can continue to float in the ocean and catch marine organisms, indefinitely. Fish that are caught in these nets cannot be retrieved and are therefore killed for no gain. These ghost gears are overfishing the oceans without us even knowing it!
Ghost nets also pose a significant threat to endangered marine species including sharks, dolphins, turtles and birds. Fish caught in the net attract marine predators like dolphins and sharks, where they themselves can become tangled in the net and drown. Turtles use floating nets as a refuge in the middle of the open ocean and either starve or drown when entangled.
Across the Maldives, only one-by-one fishing using one hook and one line to catch one fish at a time is permitted by law, so the floating ghost nets must have entered Maldivian waters from other parts of the Indian Ocean. Due to the loss of accountability, much of this floating gear would remain ghost fishing in the ocean if it weren’t for projects like the Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions award incentivising the efforts to remove floating gear.
IPNLF is passionate about the removal and prevention of lost or abandoned fishing gear from the oceans and is proudly supporting the small community of Gemanafushi fishers in their noble attempt to rid the ocean of these threats.
