OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES
NETTAG+ is developing three solutions to PREVENT, AVOID and MITIGATE the harmful impacts of fishing gear
PREVENT
Fishers as Guardians and Cleaners of the Ocean
- Empower the fisheries sector, namely professional fishers, to adopt more environmental-friendly fishing methods, prevent marine litter and increase responsible user behavior
- Create adequate conditions for the reception and treatment of litter at fishing ports, including through recycling and reuse
- Recognize and reward the volunteer service provided by fishers when retrieving marine litter that is passively collected in fishing gear
AVOID
Fishing Gear Location with Acoustic Tags
- Develop and engineer acoustic tags to be attached to fishing gear as a sustainable, low-cost and innovative low-impact solution to improve mapping, tracking and recovery of lost fishing gear
- Improve a robotic surface system linked with the acoustic tag system for lost fishing gear location/recovery
MITIGATE
Detection and Removal of Abandoned, Lost or otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG)
- Develop a system to detect ALDFG in the Ocean water column and seabed
- Co-develop, with fishers, a robotic tool to detect, map, track and recover ALDFG
NETTAG+ will build on the synergies developed between fishers and scientists in the previous NetTag project and will provide the fisheries industry with a package of three smart and environmental-friendly solutions to reduce ALDFG and the negative impacts of fishing gear
NETTAG+ MAIN ACTIONS:
AWARENESS ACTIONS, PARTICIPATORY WORKSHOPS AND DEMONSTRATION EVENTS with fishers on marine litter prevention and retrieval
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT of ALDFG and developed technological solutions
DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF SMART AND ENVIRONMENTAL-FRIENDLY SOLUTIONS for ALDFG prevention and retrieval, through tagging, mapping and recovering technological systems
DISSEMINATION AND COMMUNICATION ACTIONS on NETTAG+ findings to policy-makers, industry, fishers, scientists, EU projects and the general public
MAKE AN IMPACT THROUGH:
Changing the paradigm of the role of fishers in marine pollution
Marking fishing gear with NETTAG+ tags to avoid ALDFG
Promoting the general adoption and acceptance of technological solutions to avoid ALDFG by the end-users
Contributing to Ocean health through retrieving operations
Reducing negative impacts of ALDFG on marine life and habitats
- to Prevent and Eliminate pollution from the Ocean
NETTAG+ contributes to the EU MISSION “RESTORE OUR OCEAN AND WATERS BY 2030” objectives
To Protect and restore marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity
To Prevent and eliminate pollution of our ocean, seas and waters
NETTAG+ promotes reduction of marine pollution in line with the EU Action Plan Towards Zero Pollution for Air, Water and Soil, reducing marine litter derived from fisheries and contributing to prevent gear loss and thus decreasing of ALDFG in the ocean. As gears are mostly composed of plastic, with this reduction, NETTAG+ contributes to the implementation of the EU Strategy on Plastics in a Circular Economy, the EU Single Use Plastic Directive and the EU Directive on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment (2019/904)31. Furthermore, the demonstration and clean-up events, removing litter, including ALDFG, from the Ocean and beaches in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Malta and Croatia, contributes to a Zero Pollution approach, in line with EU Green Deal. NETTAG+ also directly contributes to the implementation of the EU Port Reception Facilities Directive (2019/883) by exploring how ports can increase/improve facilities to receive litter collected by fishing boats and also the litter from net repair work
To make the Sustainable blue economy carbon-neutral and circular
NETTAG+ supports the European Commission’s Circular Economy Package, by promoting best-practices for recycling litter among fishers as well as ALDFG retrieval, material that can be recycled.
