Dear Subscriber First Name,

It has been a busy summer for the GGGI and its members! The GGGI will be celebrating its 10th anniversary with various communications efforts, so please stay tuned and keep an eye on our website and @ggginitiative on X for more through the fall and winter. GGGI leadership team members participated in a variety of in-person events including INC 5.2 in Geneva, the Storytelling to Influence Workshop in Chicago, CEC32 in Mexico City, and two fisher workshops, one hosted by ourselves and Ocean Outcomes in Oxnard and the other by the Marine Stewardship Council in Winnipeg. We have some updates from several GGGI members, including Fisheries and Oceans Canada, the Aquatic Resources Authority of Panama, and the Center for Marine Debris Research. We also hosted Episode 13 of Let’s Talk Ghost Gear on “Collecting and Sending Data to the GGGI Data Portal” in August. Finally, we welcome three new members to the GGGI!

We also offer our apologies, as some of the links were not working in the email version of our July newsletter! If there were any links you were interested in from the July newsletter, they are working on the website version, which you can find here.

The GGGI loves celebrating the successes of its members! As always, if you have any ALDFG related news that you would like to share in the next newsletter, please email caitie@ghostgear.org.

The Global Ghost Gear Initiative turns 10 years old this month! We’ve come a long way since the inaugural kick off meeting in London in 2015. To celebrate, we have some special content that will be rolled out over the coming weeks/months on the GGGI and Ocean Conservancy websites as well as the GGGI X channel and the Ocean Conservancy Instagram channel, so please stay tuned!

The resumed fifth session (INC 5.2) of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, took place in Geneva, Switzerland from Tuesday, August 5th through Friday, August 15. GGGI’s Global Policy Lead, Hannah Pragnell-Raasch, joined 1,400 member delegates from 183 countries and close to 1,000 observers representing over 400 organizations participating in the negotiations.

Disappointingly, the INC Chair had to delay the treaty yet again as Member States were unable to reach consensus on the treaty text. Negotiations were extended for a second time to take place at a time and date yet to be determined.

This came following two iterations of revised text released by the Chair during the proceedings of INC 5.2 (Draft Text Proposal released on Wednesday, August 13 and a Revised Text Proposal released in the early hours of Friday, August 15). While the Revised Text Proposal had some welcome improvements on the Draft Text Proposal, it still lacked the ambition and failed to include legally binding obligations across the full life cycle of plastics to fulfil the mandate to end plastic pollution, especially for the marine environment. Instead, the Revised Text Proposal focused heavily on waste management measures, and, as such, would not have been a successful treaty if it was passed. We remain committed to working alongside Member States and observer organizations alike to ensure an ambitious treaty is achieved.

You can read Ocean Conservancy’s official statement here.

Membership Specialist, Caitie Frenkel, hosted Episode 13 of Let’s Talk Ghost Gear on “Collecting and Sending Data to the GGGI Data Portal”. This episode featured a short presentation from Gideon Jones, Founder and Lead Developer of Data Developed, on how to collect data for, and submit data to, the GGGI Data Portal. This was followed by an open question and answer period with the audience.

The Builders Vision and National Geographic Society hosted the “Storytelling to Influence Workshop” August 5 to 7 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Guided by National Geographic Explorer Meghan Dhaliwa Jahawi Bertolli, the goal of the workshop was to foster ocean health and resilience through storytelling. Claudia Cecilia Olimon, GGGI’s Latin America Project Coordinator, attended this workshop to learn how to harness the power of narrative to shift mindsets, inspire action, and accelerate solutions for a healthier ocean ecosystem. The workshop offered various tools and strategies to help participants understand why storytelling is an effective tool to move people to action, crafted and presented an oral and visual pitch for maximum impact, and developed strong connections within the group of changemakers through peer-to-peer feedback.

The Commission for the Environmental Cooperation (CEC) hosted the 32nd annual Council Session and Joint Public Advisory Committee Forum (#CEC32) in Mexico City on July 24 and 25. A variety of participants were in attendance, including environmental officials from Canada, Mexico, and the US, Indigenous and community leaders, business leaders, youth, and the general public. The forum explored how circular economy actions and nature-based solutions can work together to restore ecosystems, reduce waste, and build resilience in communities most affected by environmental change.

The GGGI and CEC have been working together since 2022 on the North American Net Collection Initiative (NANCI) project, a trilateral project aiming to prevent, reduce, and retrieve ghost gear, while building knowledge that will advance responsible management of active and end-of-life fishing gear. Claudia Cecilia Oliman, GGGI Latin America Project Coordinator, attended the #CEC32 event and met with CEC staff members to discuss the ongoing project highlights, challenges, and next steps.

GGGI Associate Director Joel Baziuk and Corporate Partnerships Manager Sara Pfeifer teamed up with Ocean Outcomes in August to conduct the first of two ALDFG workshops in California’s spiny lobster fishery based in Oxnard, California. The workshop focused on practical solutions to addressing the issue of ALDFG in the spiny lobster fishery in and around the Channel Islands Marine Sanctuary. The workshop brought together commercial fishers, fisheries managers, NGOs and academia to discuss current challenges and approaches toward ALDFG prevention, mitigation and recovery efforts.

The workshop occurred in the margins of the 2025 Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary Marine Debris Summit and involved more than 30 participants, many of whom are active in the commercial fishery, and sparked lively conversations among all stakeholder groups. The GGGI will work with Ocean Outcomes to hold a second workshop further south in May 2026 to build on the conversations that developed here in an effort to prevent gear loss in the region.

GGGI Associate Director Joel Baziuk and GGGI Membership Specialist Caitie Frenkel attended a workshop hosted by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on August 12, 2025. The aim of this workshop was to discuss eco-certification and other adjacent topics to encourage Manitoban commercial lake fisheries to obtain MSC certification.

Joel and Caitie presented on ALDFG in relation to the recently revised MSC standard 3.1, which contains stronger ghost gear requirements and which directly references the GGGI’s Best Practice Framework for the Management of Fishing Gear in this context. Following the presentation, we held a productive discussion with the fishers in attendance. Fishers discussed causes of ALDFG in their summer and winter fisheries in different lakes; what they are already doing to prevent, mitigate, and remediate ALDFG; and what challenges they face in addressing the issue with the aim of achieving MSC certification with the support of the Government of Manitoba.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) hosted the Second International Fishing Gear Innovation Summit in Moncton, New Brunswick on February 25 and 26, 2025. Over 220 global experts from nine countries gathered to discuss ways to address abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear and reduce whale entanglements. This July, DFO published their ‘What We Heard Report’ summarizing the highlights of the event which will inform their future management strategies and practices. They also created a video brief that spotlights some of the participants, which you can watch here.

Government of Panama Finds Recycling Partners for Ghost Gear

This spring, the Aquatic Resources Authority of Panama (ARAP) announced their partnership with CEMEX and Audobon Americas to recycle the ghost nets from ARAP’s National Ghost Gear Removal Project. After removing and cleaning the ghost nets, ARAP will be sending them to CEMEX to be shredded. CEMEX will then convert these nets into solid fuel used to produce cement with a lower carbon footprint. This program will take place across the country to provide a nationwide, end-of-life solution to ghost nets in Panama.

OceanLitter Programme Workshop

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) partnership under the OceanLitter Programme, will be hosting the OceanLitter Programme Global Task Force Training and Workshop with the theme “from commitment to action on marine plastic litter from sea-based sources.”

The Global Task Force Training and Workshop will be held at the IMO Headquarters in London, United Kingdom, from Wednesday, November 12 to Friday, November 14. It will bring together country officials representing maritime and fisheries sectors, industry and academia, leading scientific experts, and the leaders of the latest technology and innovative solutions to address sea-based sources of marine plastic litter. The event will focus on national, regional, and global challenges, the role of women, available latest research, and technology in tackling the marine plastic litter issue. For more information about the event and the agenda, see OceanLitter Programme Global Task Force Training and Workshop | GloLitter Partnerships Project.

Center for Marine Debris Research Offers Analytical Services

Hawaii Pacific University’s Center for Marine Debris Research (CMDR) is now offering micro- and nano-plastic analysis services! Their world-class analytical lab hosts micro-FTIR, micro-Raman, pyrolysis-GC/MS, and a suite of other instruments and tools used to extract and identify plastic pollution from a variety of environmental sample types. All services include a full Quality Assurance/Quality Control (background contamination blanks, positive controls, internal standard quantification technique) and span sampling protocol development, complete sample analysis workflow, and reporting. CMDR is also to customize their workflow to meet client needs and provide guidance on sample collection and experimental design. For more information, please reach out to cmdr@hpu.edu or jaxworthy@hpu.edu and check out their website.

Uganda Junior Rangers Highlighted by Monitor

GGGI member Uganda Junior Rangers, with whom we’ve worked for several years to address plastic pollution on Lake Victoria—including from fishing gear—was recently highlighted in this article by Monitor, outlining the unique challenges faced by those looking to protect the lake, the life within it, and the people living around it.

Welcome To Our New GGGI Members!

The GGGI membership continues to grow! Please welcome our newest members, the FatFace Foundation, the Marine Life Conservation Society, and the General Oceans Foundation. We look forward to working with them.