As much as 12 million tonnes of plastic are estimated to be entering the oceans every year. Europêche members, aware of the problem, are increasingly involved in environmental schemes to help combat the growing spread of marine litter and encourage fishermen across Europe to participate in recycling and clean up initiatives.
There is currently a high awareness of lost fishing gears and their impact on the marine environment, and there are increasingly initiatives to tackle the problem. In Poland coastal fishermen have mobilised to retrieve lost gear for their fishing grounds.
The owners and the skipper of a locally-based fishing vessel have been ordered to pay more than £15,000 after an unsupervised refuelling incident caused almost 400 litres of diesel oil to spill into Plymouth’s Sutton Harbour.
The busy fishing port of Dunmore East in County Waterford is now the 9th fishing port to participate in the Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) Fishing for Litter programme.
A partnership has been announced between clothing brand Fat Face, the Fat Face Foundation, diving specialists Fourth Element, and global animal welfare charity World Animal Protection as part of a venture to produce swimwear made from recycled plastics retrieved from the ocean – which includes lost fishing gear.
The European Commission, the United States, the National Aquarium of Denmark and NGO Plastic Change are behind an effort to raise awareness of plastic ocean pollution.
Finnish technology group Wärtsilä has signed an agreement with the Seabin Project to join their global pilot programme, which addresses the worldwide littering problem affecting our oceans. The project aims at approaching the challenge from different angles with emphasis on education, research and technology.
High levels of aluminium could be to blame for declining eel numbers in European rivers, according to the Sustainable Eel Group.
Several hundred thousand pieces micro-plastic can be hidden in cosmetic products as lotions, body scrub and toothpaste. Denmark’s Environment and Food Minister sees no reason to use micro-plastic in cosmetics when there are alternatives, and now calls on the EU for a ban.
Marine pollution has been in the news recently, as the World Economic Forum published a report estimating that by 2050 there will be more plastic waste than fish in the oceans. This comes as no surprise to skipper Max Christensen of Danish fishing boat Jamik K-148, who sent us this clip.