The Azores pole-and-line fishery has become the world’s first ‘plastic neutral’ fishery.
As part of an annual ghost gear removal competition project in 2021, the fleet has removed more plastic fishing gear from the ocean, by weight, than it lost on an annual basis.
The International Pole and Line Foundation (IPNLF), Azores Fisheries Observer Program (POPA) and others ran the competition to be held among the Azores pole-and-line fleet between June and September last year. Seven vessels of the Associação de Produtores de Atum e Similares dos Açores pole-and-line fleet took part in the three-month competition.
POPA has been collecting data on loss rates from 2019 until 2021 which show that the entire one-by-one fleet only produces 0.5 kg of fishing gear related litter on an annual basis. Based on this, IPNLF anticipated that the competition would result in at least 100kg of ghost gear being retrieved, and that the Azores fleet would attain ‘plastic neutral’ status.
Throughout the 2021 competition, a total of 452.1 kg of marine plastic litter was retrieved. 437.6 kg of this was ghost gear in the form of buoys, nylon cables and multifilament nets. This means that, overall, these vessels retrieved 875 times more ghost gear in weight than they lost annually in their own fishing operations.
The event has been deemed to be such a success that the Azores Ghost Gear Retrieval Competition has been confirmed for the next two years supported by Biocoop France and pioneer sustainability brand, Fish4Ever.
