Swedens fishing industry looses over 165km of fishing net per year. How much then is lost in European waters and world wide ? While work continues to focus for example on net setting methods and net sizes to conserve fisheries stock and reduce bycatch, lost gear generally receives little attention.

Lost gear continues to "fish", as well as capturing seals, dolphins, porpoises and sea birds as well, eventually the gear - nets, lines, bouys will be breakdown further, as microplastics, becoming an even more silent killer.

Work is needed to reduce lost nets, recover them and look at alternative materials.

Joakim Odelbergs film, Ghosts in the Baltic, documents the ghost net story, and will be screening at WhaleFest. He will be speaking about the problems of lost fishing nets, gear and the broader aspects of marine debris, the work to recover lost gear, and in the context of WhaleFest, how this addresses actions in the www.ascobans.org Jastarnia Plan – The Recovery Plan for the Baltic Harbour Porpoises.

Find out more at www.whale-fest.com/dive

Photo : © Emma Watson