Richardson and colleagues interviewed 451 commercial fishers from seven countries about annual fishing gear usage and losses, then used global fishing effort data to estimate loss rates, finding that almost 2% of fishing gear is lost to the sea each year. The most commonly lost fishing gears were trawl nets (3.6%), which collect species such as scallops and flounder from the sea floor, and the long lines of hooks (3.3%) that are used to catch cod, tuna and other large fish. The authors’ estimates suggest that 2,963 km2 of gillnets (a wall of nylon netting that hangs in the water column), 75,049 km2 of purse seine nets (netting deployed around an entire area or school of fish), 218 km2 of trawl nets (pulled through the water at different depths), 739,583 km of longline mainlines, and more than 25 million pots and traps are lost to the ocean each year.
Small fishing vessels were associated with higher fishing gear loss, possibly due to the technological capabilities of larger fishing vessels that help avoid fishing gear loss. By contrast, 13 billion longline hooks, which are associated with the ensnarement of marine species, are lost annually, mostly from larger fishing vessels. Richardson and colleagues note that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing was not included in their study, but is also an important driver and underlying cause of ALDFG. The baseline calculated by Richardson and colleagues can inform risk assessments, enabling stakeholders to minimize threats to wildlife and marine habitats — and maintain marine fish stocks for greater food security.
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