The Irish Sea Fisheries Board confirmed that the ‘ghost nets’ problem has became nightmare for the Irish authority. According to the Board a series of pilot clean-up schemes, involving one Spanish and three Irish ships contracted to retrieve some of the thousands of kilometres of lost, dumped and abandoned nets, will run from June to September.
The scheme is called Operation Deepclean and it is funded by the European Union at a cost of more than 500,000 euros. Dominic Rihan, from the Irish Sea Fisheries Board, said that the retrieval exercise will alleviate the problem of ghost fishing and help prevent further fish being caught in these nets. He also hoped to get an estimate of the amount of lost nets in the particular areas.
It is named ‘ghost nets’ because they drift in the ocean after being abandoned or dumped and some have been found to be still catching fish and ensnaring other marine life for up to three years. The fish are caught and die in these nets. This has depleted the stocks and has become environmental problem since the mid-1990s.
