Plastic waste from the fishing industry
Ocean pollution from consumer plastics is a widely discussed problem, but the world’s oceans are facing an even bigger issue that doesn’t receive enough attention: plastic waste from the fishing industry. A recent study of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch1 found that most of the plastic in the patch is abandoned fishing gear [1].
This study was conducted by the Ocean Cleanup organization, and they found that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch contains 79,000 tons of plastic, which is up to 16x higher than previous estimates. Furthermore, they found that fishing nets accounted for 46% of the trash by weight. The majority of the rest was composed of other abandoned fishing industry gear such as ropes, eel traps, crates, and baskets.
A sea turtle entangled in a ghost net. Photo credit: Francis Perez
These purposely or accidentally dumped fishing nets are known as “ghost nets”, and they drift through the ocean, doing what they are made to do — entrapping (and eventually killing) marine life including whales, seals, dolphins, and turtles. For example, in 2018, about 300 sea turtles were found dead after being entangled in ghost gear [2], and in 2019, a dead pregnant minke whale was found in Scotland with ghost gear clogging up her baleen (feeding system), which hugely impaired her feeding and movement [3].
A recent Greenpeace report [4], which looked at the whole ocean rather than just the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, estimated that fishing gear represents just 10% of ocean plastic overall (when considering microplastics and smaller pieces of plastic waste — although some of those smaller plastics could have originated from fishing gear as well). However, they also found that fishing gear makes up a much higher proportion of large pieces of plastic. For example, fishing gear accounts for approximately 70% of plastics more than 20cm in size that float on the surface, and 86% of plastic waste on the seafloor. It also depends on the geographic location, with fishing gear making up the vast majority of plastic pollution in many areas. For instance, six tonnes of garbage were collected from Henderson Island, a remote island in the Pacific, and of that, 60% was fishing gear.
The minke whale was pregnant with a female calf. Photo credit: SMASS ORKNEY
While it is difficult to estimate the exact proportion of ocean waste that comes from fishing gear, it is clear that it’s an important issue that needs to be resolved. It is estimated that over 640,000 tonnes of commercial fishing gear including nets, lines, pots and traps are dumped into the ocean every year — which weighs as much as 55,000 double-decker buses [4].
A UN treaty is currently being negotiated that will provide a framework for ocean protection, aiming to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030 [4], and The Ocean Cleanup is currently working to remove plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — they’ve even started recycling the trash into products such as sunglasses [5]. If you’re wondering how you can help solve this problem, here are some actions you can take: support the Ocean Cleanup, watch Seaspiracy on Netflix to learn more about the environmental and social impacts of the fishing industry, and last but not least, reduce seafood consumption!
References:
[1] Lebreton, Laurent, et al. "Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic." Scientific reports 8.1 (2018): 1-15.
[2] Cortes, Jose. About 300 endangered sea turtles found dead off Mexican coast. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-turtles/about-300-endangered-sea-turtles-found-dead-off-mexican-coast-idUSKCN1LD2OQ
[3] BBC News. Pregnant whale found tangled in 'ghost gear' in Orkney. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-49971798
[4] Greenpeace. Ghost Gear: The Abandoned Fishing Nets Haunting Our Oceans. https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-international-stateless/2019/11/8f290a4f-ghostgearfishingreport2019_greenpeace.pdf
[5] The Ocean Cleanup. Turning Trash into Treasure: The Ocean Cleanup Sunglasses. https://theoceancleanup.com/updates/turning-trash-into-treasure-the-ocean-cleanup-sunglasses/
