What does ghost fishing mean?

Ghost fish refers to abandoned, lost or abandoned fishing gear.

Ghost fishing gear refers to fishing nets, fishing lines and other fishing gear that sink to the bottom of the sea due to various factors in the process of fishing seafood. Fishing gear lost or abandoned in the ocean weighs 640,000 tons every year. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that this ghost network accounts for one tenth of the total marine debris. Ghost fishing gear will change the living environment of benthos and have a negative impact on benthos. The tiny sediments they carry will block the cracks in coral reefs and cause local hypoxia.

Abandoning fishing gear will also change the seabed and marine environment, and the propeller of the ship may also trip, which will make navigation difficult. All countries in the world are trying to improve the management of fish resources. If the influence of ghost fishing continues to expand, these efforts will be greatly reduced. Fishing gear stays in the ocean for many reasons. Storms and bad weather may drag it from the boat into the water. The marine environment itself may also cause the fishing gear to break, or the fishing gear is entangled with other objects in the ocean and it is difficult to recycle.

The solution of ghost fishing is as follows:

1, fishing gear identification

Fishing gear identification can identify its owner and encourage responsible management of fishing gear. It is an ideal way to determine and understand where the recovered fishing gear comes from so that it can be returned to its original owner, not just to find out the offenders. Investing in preventive good practices is often more cost-effective than cleaning up lost fishing gear, as is promoting fishing gear identification.

2. Improve the reporting and recycling mechanism.

Lost fishing gear should be reported for recycling. Many ships may not be able to recover fishing gear by themselves because they lack suitable equipment or the recovery operation is too dangerous for the crew. There are also some ships that choose not to report the lost fishing gear for fear of taking responsibility. The method of "no responsibility" can be adopted to exempt the ship from the responsibility of losing fishing gear. We can also use the recovery incentive mechanism, so that ships with corresponding facilities can not only recover their own fishing gear, but also find other lost fishing gear at sea.