Why does this matter? Ghost gear is often treated as a littering problem, caused by individual fishers and solved by clean-ups. However, how gear is made, tracked, marked, regulated and recovered determines how much ends up in the water and how long it stays there.

Part of the problem sits at the end of a net’s life. Old, frayed and torn nets are discarded partly because of a lack of end-of-life options, so gear that no longer catches fish has little reason to come back to shore. Because fishers rely on durable nylon, every net left at sea becomes a hazard lasting centuries. The challenge is to give old nets a value worth bringing home.

Tracing ownership – Prevention starts with knowing who owns what. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Maritime Organization launched the GloLitter Partnerships Project in 2021 with 30 partner countries. The project encourages fishing gear to be marked so it can be traced back to its owner if lost or discarded. It also promotes compliance with the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) Annex V, which prohibits ships from discharging plastic, including fishing gear. GloLitter also assesses whether ports have adequate facilities to receive waste. However, marking and port facilities only go so far if fishers have no reason to bring worn-out nets back to shore.

An invisible gap – Even nets that are never lost cause pollution. Norway’s demersal fisheries emit an estimated 200 mt of microplastics a year through gear wear, according to a paper published in Marine Policy. Yet existing rules focus primarily on preventing and recovering lost gear rather than the plastic shed during normal use. No regulation sets requirements for gear durability, polymer type or abrasion resistance. The EU has begun to shift part of the burden. Its Single-Use Plastics Directive requires member states to set up extended producer responsibility (EPR) schemes for plastic-containing fishing gear, shifting responsibility for its collection, transport and treatment towards producers. The researchers suggest these schemes could eventually be expanded to cover emissions from gear wear.

Giving nets a value – Companies such as Bureo are already working to close that gap. Bureo’s net collection programme works directly with fishing communities and has expanded from South America across eight countries, providing supplementary income to coastal communities. The collected nets are sorted, cleaned, shredded and recycled into NetPlus, a fully traceable recycled material supplied to brands including Patagonia.

Patagonia said the partnership has supported the collection and recycling of more than 2,000 mt of discarded nets since 2020. NetPlus’s traceability echoes the Norwegian researchers’ call for systems that link gear to manufacturers and recycling streams. Once a net earns its owner income, dumping it at sea means giving that income up rather than avoiding a disposal cost. Owners also have more reason to track and retrieve it. EPR schemes could help scale this model, channelling more end-of-life nets to recyclers such as Bureo.

Bottom line – Biodegradable gear is not a quick fix. The Norwegian researchers found biodegradable nets can catch 10%-30% less than standard polymers and can still break into microplastic fragments, they urged prioritising durability and reparability. If durable nets are here to stay, the biggest opportunity lies at the end of their life. Collection models that provide income to fishing communities and turn worn-out gear into traceable recycled material tackle the problem at its source, giving every net a reason to come home. With fishing gear dropped as a stand-alone provision from draft plastics treaty texts, commercial net collection and recycling may move faster than regulation.