Tag: ‘ghost gear’

Co-op co-funds ghost gear research program with Heriot-Watt University

Stuart Mitchell

Leading ethical retailer, the Co-op, is helping to co-fund a PhD into the effects of discarded fishing gear on the seabed, also known as “ghost gear”. The PhD at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, will involve collaboration from the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) – a cross-sectoral alliance dedicated to solving the problem of ghost gear around the world – of which Co-op is an official supporter. The study will involve two systematic reviews to help understand exactly how ghost-fishing impacts on the marine ecosystem. It will also evaluate the effectiveness of…

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New Greenpeace report reveals the deadly impact of ghost gear

Stuart Mitchell

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, launched today.  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,…

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GGGI announces new commitments as Nestlé and Tesco join fight against ghost fishing gear

Stuart Mitchell

At the Our Ocean 2018 conference in Bali, Nestlé, the world’s biggest food company and Tesco, the UK’s biggest supermarket chain, have announced they have joined the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) to help address the more than 640,000 tonnes of fishing gear, also called ‘ghost gear’, ending up in our oceans every year. The Global Ghost Gear Initiative, founded in 2014, is the only global alliance of its kind, dedicated to tackling the problem of ghost fishing gear at a global scale. <br/> Ingrid Giskes, Chair of the GGGI…

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