Why does this matter? The environmental harms of marine plastic are numerous. Ghost fishing gear comprises 30% of total plastic waste in the oceans. Current data is likely to be an underestimate of the actual abundance of abandoned, lost and otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALFDG) in the ocean.

Large nylon nets can be up to the size of football pitches and take up to 600 years to break down. In the meantime, they harm aquatic life by entrapping creatures. As fishing equipment decomposes, it becomes microplastic pollution, which may have a detrimental effect on human health due to the bioaccumulation of plastics moving up the trophic ladder.

Automating the process of locating ghost nets – as Ghost Net Zero AI is doing – enables a huge speeding up of possible clean up globally. However, funding of clean up activity by governments is essential follow through to make their efforts impactful.

Ocean 14 capital invests in several companies tackling marine plastic. Bureo recycles discarded fishing nets into recycled raw materials used by brands including Patagonia, Toyota and Trek. Annually it collects 1,000+ metric tons of nets across six countries. It exemplifies a path to a circular economy in the fishing industry.

When it comes to solutions to reduce plastic pollution at all stages of the production line, AION tackles the issue at the root. It analyses clients’ plastic-product value chain and identify how to reduce virgin plastic use, replacing it with recycled plastic and how to avoid generating plastic waste in the process.

It is important to see the systemic nature of marine plastic waste. A recent study on the knowns and known unknowns of fishing plastic waste suggested potential reasons for increasing ALDFG fishing material. Pressure from enforcement measures can incentivise illegal fishers to abandon nets to avoid detection.

Meanwhile, operational pressures, such as adverse weather patterns mean that occasionally gear must be abandoned for safety reasons. Furthermore, economic pressure adds an incentive to dispose of materials at sea if the alternatives require additional time and cost.

There are several factors that influence output of plastic at all stages of the value chain. Globally, international laws and enforcing bodies still struggle to monitor and govern the oceans. Whereas, from a financial standpoint, existing economic systems incentivise profit-making and efficiency within the fishing industry more so than environmental stewardship. Therefore, when designing fishing nets, synthetic materials are the obvious choice given their durability.

Additionally, knowledge about the dangers of jettisoning fishing materials is not universally understood, so another approach may be to fund and facilitate training programmes for fishers in areas with low education. NGOs such as Blue Marine Foundation are important partners in this endeavour, as detailed in its 2024 annual report, it facilitated nearly 4,000 to complete training programmes.

Existing international treaties on plastics are patchy and unevenly enforced. Two significant pieces of legislation are the UN Global Plastics Treaty and the Basel Convention. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, first introduced in 1989, was amended in 2019 to include plastic waste, aiming to regulate its trade and prevent illegal dumping in developing nations.

Whereas the UN plastic treaty would be legally binding and was under negotiation for two years. However, discussions were paused in 2024 when member states were unable to agree. Negotiations will continue this year.