2% of Deadly Fishing Gear is Lost in Our Oceans Each Year

By Mark J. Palmer

A stunning new scientific paper, based on hundreds of interviews with fishermen around the world, concludes that commercial fishermen lose about 2% of all fishing gear annually in the ocean. Most of this gear – nets and fishing lines – are plastic.

The researchers reported in the journal Science Advances that they based their loss estimates on interviews conducted with 451 fishers from seven major fishing countries.

On average, about 3.57% of all trawl nets, which often get hung up on bottom obstacles while trawling, are lost each year, compared to 0.81% of all gill nets, 1.51% of all purse seine nets, and 3.33% of all longline mainlines.

If current trends continue, the researchers observe, in 65 years the entire Earth could be covered with nets polluting our oceans.

An additional .74% of all pots and traps, used mainly to fish for crabs and lobsters, and 2.68% of all longline hooks are lost at sea annually.

Total estimated numbers can be staggering. The researchers estimate, based on their surveys, that 13.99 billion longline hooks alone are lost each year, along with 25.4 million pots and traps.

For dangerous plastic gill nets that entangle marine mammals, sharks, sea turtles, and many other species, an estimated 1,841 square miles (2,963 square kilometers) are lost each year. Fragments of purse seine nets are lost at the rate of 46,633 square miles (75,048 square kilometers) each year. About 135.5 square miles (218 square kilometers) of trawl nets are lost every year. (It is unusual for fishermen to lose a whole net – most of the losses are fragments.)

It should be noted that these numbers are all approximations, with wide margins of error, based on input from commercial fishermen. At the same time, the fishermen interviewed may have offered conservative estimates, fearing criticism for lost plastic gear plaguing our oceans.

Many experts have pointed out that fishing gear is designed specifically to catch marine life, thus potentially posing greater harm to marine life than other plastic pollution.

The International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP) of Earth Island Institute released a report titled The Plastics Plague: Marine Mammals and Our Oceans in Peril. Our report emphasizes the impact on marine mammals from fishing gear as being a major cause of mortality for these animals. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that 300,000 whales and dolphins die entangled in fishing gear each year.

Bold steps must be taken to reduce the losses of fishing gear and help fishermen find more sustainable ways to fish in our oceans.

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You can help stem the tide of plastics by reducing your own use of plastic products and by donating to the International Marine Mammal Project. Your support has helped IMMP publicize the plastics plague, which drowns countless marvelous ocean beings. Help support critical work to help safeguard marine life. Thank you!