Ghost Fishing project involves the survey and removal of ghost nets (abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear) from the sea around the UK. 

Divers volunteering with registered charity Ghost Fishing UK (https://www.ghostfishing.org/uk/) recover a tiny portion of the 640,000 tonnes of fishing gear that the UN estimates is lost into the world’s oceans each year. 

Mostly it is plastic, and so does not easily breakdown, but instead goes on trapping and killing fish, crustaceans and marine mammals for many years. 

The nets we recover are sent to NOFIR (https://nofir.no) for cleaning and sorting and on to recycling by Aquafil (https://www.aquafil.com) into Econyl brand yarn, the basis for new sustainable products.

 I thank my colleague Martin J. Maple for sharing with us the information about this amazing project and initiative.