The volume of waste fishing gear shipped overseas from Iceland for recycling has roughly tripled in just a few years, from 758 tonnes in 2019 to 1685 tonnes last year.
A concerted initiative co-ordinated by fishing industry body SFS has resulted in fifteen collection points around the country becoming operational, in co-operation with fishing gear manufacturers.
As well as worn out gear put ashore by the fleet, there are also caches of orphaned fishing gear to be found in numerous ports and harbours, and efforts are being made to track down and deal with these piles of waste gear that have in some cases been there for many years.
Most recently an old herring purse seine was taken for disposal from an area of the port of Hafnarfjörður.
Staff at fishing gear company Ísfell estimate that this particular 10-tonne net could have been produced sometime between 1960 and 1970, and has been repaired a great many times during a long period of use. It is believed to have been on the quayside for around fifteen years since being put ashore for the last time.
Last week this net was spooled into a container and sent on a new journey to a recycler in Lithania. The herring seine contains nylon, lead, floats and ropes, as well as an amount of rubber, which is sent to Holland for recycling. The fishing gear gets stripped down in Lithuania to its constituent parts, which are then recycled for other uses.
According to SFS, this initiative to clear away orphaned fishing gear has been in progress for the last two years, in co-operation with fishing gear suppliers and shipping group Eimskip, and a record was set last year in the volume of scrap gear shipped overseas for recycling.
