Dear Subscriber First Name,

We are excited to share March and April updates from the GGGI with you all! After receiving a record number of applications, the GGGI has selected the recipients of the 2025 Small Grants Program. Additionally, the GGGI team has been attending various events in-person and virtually, including the Seafood Expo North America, the second Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism webinar, Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) 83, a Sri Lanka Regional Roundtable, and meetings with the Mexican legislature. We hosted our 11th episode of the Let’s Talk Ghost Gear webinar series and a second Academic Focus Group discussion. We also have updates from several GGGI members including Odyssey Innovation, the Aquatic Life Institute, and La Asociación Centroamericana para la Economía, la Salud y el Ambiente (ACEPESA). Finally, we welcome six new members to the GGGI!

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.

We are pleased to announce the recipients of our 2025 Small Grants Awardees! This year proved to be the most competitive applicant pool yet with 35 applications from six continents. We look forward to seeing the success of these projects over the course of the year:

• Joanna Toole Award: Instituto Ecomar (Maruhlo), “Breaking the Ghost Fishing Cycle in a small island in Brazil”

• Joanna Toole Award: Tunisian Taxonomy Association and The University of Sfax, “ECO-GEAR: Empowering Communities and Optimizing the Code of Conduct for Ghost Gear Management in the Gulf of Gabès”

• Blue Victoria, “Integrated Ghost Gear Cleanup and Sustainable Fishing Education in Lake Victoria, Tanzania”

• Wolf Fish Ltd., “Cleaning Cambodia’s Seas: A capacity-building and community-based ALDFG removal project”

We will have more information on these projects on the GGGI website shortly, so keep your eyes open for that. Funding for GGGI’s small grants program was generously provided by the Joanna Toole Foundation and the Government of Norway.

On March 17, the GGGI was in Boston at Seafood Expo North America (SENA) and hosted a panel titled Seafood Industry-led Efforts to Address the Deadliest Form of Marine Plastic Debris where we showcased the efforts of our industry members acting as leaders on the issue. In the last year, we’ve seen tremendous momentum from our industry member base, including a wave of commitments centered around preventing gear loss in those fisheries and farming operations from which their seafood is sourced. We were thrilled to bring together panelists from StarKist, Sea Farms, and Gorton’s Seafood, which represent companies across the seafood value chain, to present their unique approaches to identifying and preventing gear loss.

On March 18, the GGGI and the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) co-hosted the second of a series of two webinars focused on addressing ALDFG in the Caribbean Region. The first webinar, held on February 18, set the stage and provided background information on ALDFG actions in the region, including the development of the an ALDFG Regional Action Plan for the Caribbean, developed by GGGI with input from CRFM and the Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI). The second session focused on a deep dive into the Regional Action Plan to raise awareness and gather feedback into the document to ensure it remains fit for purpose.

View the second webinar here.

The Marine Environment Protection Committee convened for its 83rd session (MEPC 83) April 7-11 at the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) headquarters in London, England.

GGGI’s Global Policy Lead, Hannah Pragnell-Raasch attended the week-long negotiations virtually. Negotiations were dominated by climate goals, including a Global Fuel Standard (GFS) and a greenhouse-gas-emission levy to incentivize uptake of zero-emission fuels and a revision of IMO's Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) for the measurement of ship emissions. Marine plastic pollution, including ALDFG, received little attention during negotiations. However, the draft 2025 Action Plan to Address Marine Plastic Litter from Ships was formally adopted. Proposals to integrate the Action Plan and the Strategy to Address Marine Plastic Litter from Ships under a single resolution (currently they are separate) were broadly supported by the Member States, however there was some disagreement on the timing. The Committee requested the Secretariat to submit IMO's work on marine plastic litter to the next Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee session (INC 5.2) taking place in Geneva, Switzerland this August and to inform the 13th Session of the Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR 13) of this outcome.

The GGGI welcomed support from several Member States who shared concerns raised in a document highlighting the need for concrete actions to address ALDFG. This document was submitted to MEPC 83 by the Clean Shipping Coalition (CSC) and Friends of the Earth International (FOEI) with contributions from the GGGI. As part of the CSC, the GGGI will continue working with Member States and CSC to ensure ALDFG is prioritized at PPR 13 and MEPC 84 in January and April 2026.

Read CSC’s full press release here: Clean Shipping Coalition | IMO Climate Agreement Shipwreck Misses Targets and Betrays Most Vulnerable

The Senate’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Commission of the Mexican Republic led a meeting to address ALDFG in Mexico on April 1, 2025. Senators, the GGGI, and The ICCF Group discussed legislative solutions to prevent, mitigate, and remediate the impacts of ALDFG. This dialogue led to commitments between decision-makers and organizations to continue efforts to support marine biodiversity and the communities that depend on Mexico's coastal ecosystems.

So far, the ICCF Mexico and the GGGI have identified and shared areas of opportunities to strengthen ghost gear-related bills that are currently on review. These recommendations included: define distribution of responsibilities among federal agencies; promote strengthening multi-sectoral coordination spaces; promote the cooperation of key stakeholders in the prevention, correction, and mitigation of ALDFG; include a gradual gear marking system; develop a national Alert System and Registry of Lost and Recovered Fishing Gear; and promote incentives instead of sanctions to those who report ALDFG.

Senior Director, Ingrid Giskes, and Latin America Project Coordinator, Claudia Olimón, also met with the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to share ALDFG progress and find opportunities for continuing the collaboration to jointly combat ghost gear in Mexican waters.

The GGGI has just released a new film highlighting our Signature Project in the Pacific Northwest. Featuring GGGI members Northwest Straits Foundation, Natural Resources Consultants, and Emerald Sea Protection Society, this film highlights their work as part of our ongoing Signature Project in the region. Dedicated teams are taking action to address ghost gear in this spectacular part of the world. This short film tells their story – and ours.

Click here to watch on YouTube

Membership Specialist, Caitie Frenkel, hosted Episode 11 of Let’s Talk Ghost Gear on “Methods to Remove ALDFG from Aquatic Environments.” This episode featured short presentations from five GGGI members who specialize in removing ALDFG from a variety of aquatic environments in Canada and the United States. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion where presenters answered questions from a live audience and had an open discussion on the topic. This episode’s panelists included:

• Colin Toole – General Manager and Principal, CSR GeoSurveys Ltd. (Canada)

• James Morioka – Executive Director, Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project  (USA)

• Kitty Daniels – Project Coordinator and Dive Instructor, Beyond the Reef (USA)

• Bourton Scott – Founder, Emerald Sea Protection Society (Canada) 

• Buzz Scott - President, Oceanswide (USA)

Click here to view the webinar.

In March 2025, Odyssey Innovation launched Scuttle the Microplastic Collecting Cuttle, a groundbreaking initiative designed to tackle microplastics in the marine environment while inspiring the next generation of ocean stewards. Crafted from fully recyclable and traceable marine plastic from fishing nets and ropes recovered through the UK’s Marine and Net Regeneration Schemes, Scuttle is designed to collect ALDFG and other marine plastics.

More than just a toy and tool, Scuttle empowers youngsters to submit their self-gathered data through a fun game while encouraging repeated beach cleaning activities. The children’s excitement went beyond simply collecting plastic — they were fascinated to learn about the impact of microplastics on marine life, how pollution travels across oceans, and how small actions can make a big difference.

Organizations can sponsor schools, beach cleaning communities, and NGOs by donating Scuttles. This supports the Little Pickers Campaign, which aims to educate and engage young minds about solutions and real-world action to tackle marine plastic pollution with a focus on microplastics.

For sponsorship opportunities, contact Odyssey Innovation at info@odysseyinnovation.com.

ACEPESA

New GGGI member La Asociación Centroamericana para la Economía, la Salud y el Ambiente (ACEPESA) participated in the Removal of Fantasma Fishing Gear event hosted by For de Oceans Foundation, the United Roped Fishermen Association of Costa de Pájaros, and the National University. This event was hosted in Costa de Pájaros near the Cortezas Islands in the Gulf of Nicoya, Costa Rica, and ACEPESA’s involvement was part of a project they are developing in the Gulf of Nicoya titled “Strategy for the Removal of Accumulation Points or Fishing Gear Sticking Points”.

Before this event, ACEPESA, For de Oceans, the National Coast Guard Service of Caldera SNG, and the National University considered and analyzed different variables affecting fishing gear loss and retrieval. The challenges of managing and recycling the retrieved fishing nets and the importance of properly separating the waste for later processing were addressed, in addition to the participation of marine biology students who took samples to later analyze what was found in the nets. Meetings were also held with local fishermen. Prior to the activity, ACEPESA gave a talk on ghost fishing and later the group of local scuba divers organized dives and other related activities.

Volunteers from the National Coast Guard Service, the National University, and various other organizations worked together to remove 47 metres of derelict net via scuba diving. Despite the challenging conditions leading to less removed net than expected, this event was a huge success as it brought together 40 participants from different stakeholder groups keen to address ALDFG in Costa Rica. This experience gave ACEPESA valuable information to adapt the fishing gear removal protocol called the “Protocol for the Detection and extraction of lost fishing gear in the Mediterranean” from the University of Barcelona.

Aquatic Life Institute 2025 Innovative Practices Report

The Aquatic Life Institute published the fourth edition of their “Marine Capture Fisheries: Innovative Practices for Aquatic Animal Welfare” report in March, 2025. This report includes a section on technologies to prevent abandoned, lost, and discarded fishing gear in wild capture fisheries. Click here for a full copy of the report.

Healthy Seas Webinar - Protecting the Ocean: Legal Tools and Gaps in the Fight Against Marine Pollution

Join Healthy Seas for a powerful webinar on Thursday, May 8th 08:00 - 09:00 PDT exploring the intersection of legal systems and marine conservation, from on-the-ground cleanup operations to visionary shifts in international law. We’ll move from local struggles to global strategies, tackling barriers, breakthroughs, and bold legal innovations that could shape the future of our oceans.

Speakers and topics include:

• Veronika Mikos – Director, Healthy Seas “Ghost Farms and Grey Areas.” Insights from ghost gear cleanups in Greece, highlighting the complex legal ambiguities surrounding responsibility for abandoned aquaculture infrastructure.

• Rogier Hörchner – Environmental Lawyer “Legal Gaps and Litigation in Marine Pollution.” Case studies from the Netherlands exploring which legal tools are working – and what’s missing.

• Michelle Bender – Legal expert from Ocean Vision Legal. Michelle will expand the horizon, exploring how rights of nature, international treaties, and visionary frameworks can offer stronger, more holistic protection for the ocean.

Click here to register

National TRAP Program Funding Accepting Proposals

The Nationwide Fishing Trap Removal, Assessment, and Prevention Program (TRAP) is accepting applications for projects focused on removing derelict fishing traps from US coastal waterways while collecting data to prevent future gear loss. With funding from the NOAA Marine Debris Program, the William and Mary’s Batten School, and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, TRAP is hoping to distribute 6 to 15 awards for projects ranging between $50,000 to $200,000 USD.

Proposals are due on May 30, 2025 by 11:59 PM EDT. For more information about TRAP and the application process, please visit their website.

Welcome To Our New GGGI Members!

The GGGI membership continues to grow! Please join us in welcoming our newest members Similii, Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation, AQUADEV, La Asociación Centroamericana para la Economía, la Salud y el Ambiente (ACEPESA), UMITO Partners, and the Ghost Net Collective! We look forward to our work together!