In our Research Highlights blog series, we debut newly published fisheries research by our women of fisheries colleagues. If you have research you would like to highlight and share with our readers, submit a nomination form here!

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This Month’s Research Highlight:

McIntyre, Jessie, Katie Duncan, Leah Fulton, Ariel Smith, Alexa J. Goodman, Craig J. Brown, and Tony R. Walker. 2023. Environmental and economic impacts of retrieved abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear in Southwest Nova Scotia, Canada. Marine Pollution Bulletin 192: 115013.

When scientists work alongside fishers, we can build a better future. That is the message of this month’s research highlight. Jessie McIntyre, while with the Ghost Gear Project at Coastal Action in Nova Scotia, worked with a team to form partnerships with local fishers to develop ways to remove marine debris, specifically “ghost gear,” and quantify its impacts on the ocean environment. 

Ghost gear is the common term used to describe what scientists label ALDFG or “abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear.” It is estimated that up to 2% of Atlantic Canadian fish traps are lost each year from fishing. It is expensive to retrieve and dispose of this waste, if it can even be found and retrieved in the first place. “ALDFG has impacts on marine life, commercial and recreational fisheries as well as marine safety but there is little research on ALDFG and organized removal efforts in Canada,” notes Jessie. 

Until now. 

To begin, Jessie and her team reached out to commercial fish harvesters to gauge interest in helping to remove this ghost gear and develop how to do it. This was critical, because these fishers had extensive knowledge about the area and fishing industry and could gather additional information from other fishers. Jessie further notes, “Fishers who were interested wanted to give back to their industry and improve the environment for their fishery.” In all, they tried six different grapples with various designs but all having “hooks” that can snag and retrieve the targeted debris. Their efforts paid off big. Over 24 metric tonnes of marine debris were removed in 129 trips in their study area in southwest Nova Scotia – all completed with the help of commercial fishing captains and deckhands. 

In addition to the removal of marine debris, this study sought to identify what types are most common and what ecological impacts they may have on the ocean environment. Although the majority of the marine debris collected was ghost gear, a wide variety of other items from an old toilet and engine block to discarded cable from commercial trawl vessels was also reported. Traps, which were by far the most common ghost gear retrieved, ranged in age from one year to 37 years old. Sometimes, gear up to three years old was still fishing. During the study, American lobster Homarus americanus, Jonah crab Cancer borealis, and over 20 species of fish were released from retrieved gear – including some threatened species such as Atlantic wolffish Anarhichas lupus, Atlantic cod Gadus morhua, and white hake Urophycis tenuis. Researchers found that traps could continue fishing for up 3 years. Not only do these young ghost traps pose a danger to threatened species, they can also result in the costly loss of revenue roughly estimated to be up to $200,000 per year in this area.

When asked what the big take home message is from their work, Jessie highlighted “…that a lot could be accomplished working directly with fishers and that we could retrieve gear using this method in this fishing area, so other groups could be inspired by our work.” This method appears to be growing momentum, too, with renewed funding for the Ghost Gear Program, additional groups joining the effort, and new studies being done to improve the retrieval process (link below).  

As with most environmental issues, though, prevention efforts are often a more cost effective and better alternative. Marine debris removal is very expensive, so efforts to prevent gear loss, promote stewardship through education and additional collaborations, and provide better recycling and disposal options for old or damaged gear are encouraged.

By working together, we can reduce our ecological impact on the ocean environment, protect the fisheries so many people depend on, and build a better future for all of us.

The full manuscript can be found or downloaded here:
doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.115013 (open access)

Evaluating the use of side scan sonar for improved detection and targeted retrieval of abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csr.2023.105077 (open access)