The NETTAG+ project, funded by the European Union, aims to combat fishing waste and mitigate its effects on marine life. To do so, fishermen are our greatest allies.
Marine pollution is reaching alarming levels in both the Mediterranean and the Atlantic and scientists warn that the biggest threat is not what we can see on the surface.
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There are countless types of marine debris that can be found on the seabed, but one that stands out as particularly dangerous, is ghost fishing gear. These include fishing nets, lines and traps that have been abandoned or lost at sea.
As they continue to catch marine life, ghost fishing gear is slowly transforming parts of the ocean into an "equipment graveyard," dangerous even for fishermen themselves.
"Fishing nets can pose a safety problem for boats," Juan Pablo Pérez, a fisherman in the Póvoa de Varzim area of Porto, tells Euronews.
Faced with this problem, there is now a European project working to solve it. The NETTAG+ initiative, which brings together scientists, engineers and fishermen, is designed to prevent and recover lost equipment, mitigating the harmful effect of this waste, in a project that works on several fronts.
One of them is technological, with the project developing acoustic tags containing a unique identifier, which are placed on fishing nets, allowing them to be tracked via a mobile application, even from more than two kilometres away.
"An acoustic localisation system, with small devices that attach to a net or fishing gear and, if that equipment is left on the seabed, I can then, from the surface, using sound communication, ask where that lost net is and find it," explains Alfredo Martins, a researcher at the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (INESC TEC) and professor at the Porto Higher Institute of Engineering.
For equipment already lost in the depths of the sea, a robotic system called IRIS uses sonar to locate it and map the seabed. This equipment is able to locate lost fishing gear at great depths, contributing to safer and more efficient recovery operations.
"Basically, the robot is a vehicle that I can send somewhere, I can ask it to do a task of some complexity," says Martins.
Fishermen are allies
Whether it's prevention or technological development, fishermen are always an important part of the process. "Fishermen are not only involved in the first part of the project - prevention, rubbish collection, keeping the ocean healthy - but they are also involved in the technological solutions," Alfredo Martins told Euronews.
The NETTAG+ project team is testing these technologies with fishermen in different sea conditions, using different types of fishing gear.
"Fishermen want to work actively to solve marine litter, because they are the first to deal with this problem. They are the first to be impacted," Sandra Ramos, a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR) told Euronews.
"That's why we've had this participation, they're not stakeholders in the project, they're partners in the project and their openness, from the very beginning when we started planning the solutions, even the most technological ones, has a lot to do with this concern of the sector in wanting to help solve this problem that torments them so much."
In addition to the technological devices, some of which are already being commercialised, the project has developed a set of governance and policy solutions that can be implemented in both large-scale and small-scale fishing contexts.
These technologies have been tested in Póvoa de Varzim, in northern Portugal, with local fishermen, but the goal is to implement these solutions at the European level.
"All of these solutions, particularly in terms of recommendations, are being sent not only to the European level, but also to the national level, to the institutions that manage fisheries," explains the researcher. "There are general recommendations,but also ones specific to each country. That's why we're sending all this information and all this knowledge that the project has generated to the appropriate organisations."
The project is assessing the environmental impact of abandoned fishing gear as a source of microplastics, dangerous chemicals and pathogens.
The hope is that with better technology, stronger co-operation and more sustainable practices, the tide of ghost gear can finally be turned.
