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Report of 2019 FAO Regional workshops on best practices to prevent and reduce abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear in collaboration with the Global Ghost Gear Initiative

Port Vila, Vanuatu, 27–30 May 2019. Bali, Indonesia, 8–11 June 2019. Dakar, Senegal, 14–17 October 2019. Panama City, Panama, 18–23 November 2019












FAO. 2020. Report of 2019 FAO Regional workshops on best practices to prevent and reduce abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear in collaboration with the Global Ghost Gear Initiative. Port Vila, Vanuatu, 27–30 May 2019. Bali, Indonesia, 8–11 June 2019. Dakar, Senegal, 14–17 October 2019. Panama City, Panama, 18–23 November 2019. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Report No 1312. Rome. 




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    Abandoned, lost and discarded gillnets and trammel nets: methods to estimate ghost fishing mortality, and the status of regional monitoring and management 2016
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    The ecological and socio-economic problems caused by abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) are increasingly of concern. Used primarily by coastal, artisanal, small-scale fisheries worldwide, marine gillnets and trammel nets, which have relatively high ghost fishing potential, account for about one-fifth of global marine fisheries landings. FAO and the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities, hosted by the United Nations Envi ronment Programme, as Secretariat for the Global Partnership on Marine Litter, commissioned this study to identify best practices to estimate ghost fishing mortality rates and levels, priority research needs, and the status of international monitoring and management of ALDFG and ghost fishing by marine gillnet and trammel net fisheries. Accurate estimates of total ghost fishing mortality levels can be made given quality data on the density of ALDFG retaining fishing efficiency, duration of ghost fishing efficiency, and total ghost fishing mortality level of a unit of effort of ALDFG over the full period that the derelict gear retains fishing efficiency. Recommendations to improve estimates of regional and global rates and levels of ghost fishing from ALDFG from marine gillnet and trammel net fisheries were made. An assessment was made and opportunities were identified to improve intergovernmental organizations’ data collection protocols and management measures to prevent and remediate ALDFG and ghost fishing by marine gillnets and trammel nets.
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    Legal aspects of abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear 2022
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    The growing quantity of plastic waste in the marine environment including abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) is a global problem. A particular feature of ALDFG is the potential of some gears to carry on fishing for many months or even years. The study examines legal responses to ALDFG in the context of marine fisheries. After discussing the nature of the problem of ALDFG and some of the reasons why fishing gear is abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded, the study examines the response of the international community to ALDFG. A key finding is that ALDFG is at the same time, a fishing issue, a navigation problem (of vessel source pollution) and an environmental problem with the resulting involvement of FAO, IMO and UNEP as well as the UN General Assembly. After examining potential legal approaches to the problem, the study then describes the basic legal and institutional arrangements in four case study jurisdictions that have adopted legal measures to address ALDFG, namely Australia, the European Union and its Member States, Norway and the USA finding once again the tripartite responsibility of fisheries, navigation and environment ministries/agencies. The inter-sectoral nature of ALDFG suggests the need for a collaborative and coordinated approach. While not all of the case study jurisdictions make use of all ten of the individual legal measures identified, the case studies also clearly show that ALDFG is a problem that is susceptible to a legal response at the national or regional level including through the use of extended producer responsibility schemes, various reporting requirements and gear standards. Legal tools to address the problem of ALDFG clearly exist. The extent to which some, or all, of them are necessary or appropriate in a given context at national, regional or global level is not ultimately a legal question but a political one.

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