What is Ghost
Gear?
Ghost gear is the waste left from fishing activities that
now floats in our oceans and has the potential to entangle
or kill the animals that live there. It is estimated in
fact that for each piece of ghost gear six animals are harmed.
Animals
of all sizes, from whales to the endangered Loggerhead and Leatherback sea
turtles, to small fish like the Brook Trout, run the risk of being entangled,
injured and even killed every day.
Recently,
In March 2018, fishermen hauled 400
kg of fishing
nets out of the sea in a few locations off Kerala’s south coast.
Consequences
Globally every year, more than 100,00 whales, dolphins, seals and
turtles are caught in ‘ghost gear’ as
abandoned, lost and discarded fishing nets, lines and traps which can take up
to 600 years to decompose.
The
vast majority of this gear is made of plastics that take
centuries to degrade. Animals caught in this incredibly
durable fishing gear then suffer a prolonged and painful death, usually
suffocating or starving to death over a number of months.
Indian initiative to control Ghost Gear:
Scientists at Kochi’s Central Institute of Fisheries Technology studied ghost nets in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Conclusion:
The level of ghost gear has increased in recent years and is
likely to grow further as fishing efforts intensify, creating
wide-ranging problems for the marine environment and
costing governments millions of dollars in clean-up expenses.
India
can emulate innovative solutions from
across the world to tackle the problem of ghost gear.
More
efforts to make the process more
organised across the over 7,500 km of India’s coasts, as
well as inland water bodies, are the need of the hour.
Way
Forward:
No
matter where you live, we all have a responsibility to look after our precious
ocean life.
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