Why it matters – In the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), a mass of floating plastic spanning an area three times the size of France, 75% to 86% of plastic is linked to fishing activities. The ghost gear can be traced to mainly the US, China, Japan and the Korean Peninsula. It is estimated that 500,000 mt to 1 million mt of fishing gear ends up in the sea every year, highlighting the magnitude of the problem. Everything on our planet is interlinked. When something is dumped, it does not disappear, it pollutes the whole marine ecosystem, including the deepest point on Earth – the Mariana Trench.

Ecosystem decline – A visible consequence of ghost gear is the entrapment or digestion of items by marine life. A WWF report has labelled fishing gear as the deadliest of marine plastic debris, expected to impact 66% of marine mammals, 50% of all sea birds and all species of sea turtles. In 2018, it was reported 650,000 marine animals are killed each year by discarded nets, disrupting natural ocean processes such as the nutrients cycle.

Problem of microplastics – A less visible consequence of discarded fishing gear in the ocean is microplastics, which due to the unforgiving elements of the sea, can break down even smaller into nanoplastics. Microplastics in oceans have been linked to health problems and mortality in corals, fish, marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles, zooplankton as well as other ocean creatures. This in turn impacts humans in multiple ways from disrupting the natural processes that regulate oceans, such as the ability of plankton to photosynthesis, to the health impacts of eating seafood which contains microplastics.

Human health risk – Microplastics have been found inside human bones, highlighting the depth of the problem. Furthermore, bodies containing high amounts of microplastics appear more susceptible to stokes, heart attacks and dementia. Chemicals contained in plastics most likely interfere with hormones and therefore the body’s metabolic function. The invisibility of microplastics and the movement of ocean currents adds a nuance to our understandings of the ocean and forces us to inspect our binary ideas of boundaries and categories.

Limitation of borders – Chile, on the 10 March 2026, made a historical announcement to protect 337,000 sq km of the waters around the Juan Fernandez and Nazca-Desventuradas marine parks, equating to the third largest no-take zone in the world, covering 899,268 sq km. This is a landmark achievement, supported by the Blue Marine Foundation, which will provide great benefit to the protected area. However, marine protected areas (MPAs) are still affected by abandoned fishing gear as the ocean currents circulate beyond human constructed borders. This enforces the need to clean up fishing gear as even in MPAs, fishing nets and associated microplastics can still damage the environment.

Innovative solutions – Safe disposal of fishing nets is essential to ensuring less animal deaths and microplastic complications, however lack of waste infrastructure, logistical barriers and lax enforcement perpetuate the issue. Many innovative options are available, from companies such as Bureo repurposing fishing nets into items such as waterproof clothing to Ukraine’s use of fishing nets as drone defences.

A holistic approach – Ultimately, the crisis of ghost gear proves that the ocean does not recognise human borders or protected statuses. Abandoned equipment acts as a persistent, lethal threat across the entire water column to both marine life and human health. Protecting our waters requires marine protected areas, but also a global shift toward accountability, innovative recycling and rigorous disposal protocols for fishing gear. Until we treat the ocean as a single, interconnected system, MPAs will remain vulnerable to the reach of plastic pollution from beyond their assigned borders.