GGGI Signature Project - North American Net Collection Initiative (NANCI)
Project Background
Our signature North American Net Collection Initiative (NANCI) project is the first-ever transboundary initiative to prevent ghost gear in the coastal waters of the western United States, Mexico, and Canada. The GGGI, along with the Government of Mexico and several local non-profit organizations (including WWF Mexico, Pronatura Noroeste, Manta Caribbean Project, Wildcoast, and Bureo Inc.), and supported by funding from a diverse set of funders including the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, and the Builders Initiative, have come together to tackle ALDFG in a holistic way under the NANCI project banner.
Mexico is one of the world’s 17 “megadiverse” countries and one of the top 15 countries with the largest coastlines. As such, it is not surprising to learn that there is a significant amount of ALDFG in Mexico’s waters. Results from the first multi-institutional ALDFG removal program in the vaquita marina area, which launched in 2016, showed that more than 1,300 nets were removed from the Northern Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) as of 2020.
North America’s Pacific coast overall is home to several commercially important fish species and supports a diverse marine economy in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In 2020, Mexico alone recorded 1.7 million metric tons in total fish catch, the third-highest amount in Latin America. This impacts the income for 300,000 people in Mexico who are directly involved in fishing, and it contributes to meeting UN FAO’s goal of a world without hunger and malnutrition. However, 42% of Mexico’s population lives in poverty, which makes addressing ghost gear pertinent to people’s livelihoods and food security. Eliminating ghost gear as the most harmful form of marine plastic debris requires a targeted and holistic approach across prevention, mitigation, and remediation.
The goals of the project include:
Developing knowledge of ghost gear in Mexico, including through fisher surveys and predictive models for ALDFG along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Mexico;
Facilitating the development of an ALDFG action plan for Mexico based on the GGGI C-BPF and tailored to Mexico’s specific social, political, ecological, and economic context;
Promoting trilateral collaboration between the GGGI member governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, recognizing that ALDFG is a cross-cutting international issue;
Removing ghost gear from critical habitats in Mexico, supporting a healthy ecosystem, and building capacity and technical expertise among local NGOs to continue removal work in the future;
Transforming end-of-life fishing nets into high-value consumer goods via Bureo’s Net Positiva program, including establishing a net collection hub in Ensenada, Mexico.
Project Summary
(2025)
Capacity Building
Ghost Gear Removal Generic Protocol
The GGGI collaborated with NRC to develop a universal guidance document presenting best practices for conducting ALDFG verification dive surveys and gear removals. This document, completed in October, was published in English and Spanish. It is a practical tool for stakeholders, outlining essential steps and considerations for planning and conducting ALDFG retrievals. The document also presents an overview of best practices for reducing the scope and impact of ALDFG, links to helpful resources, and case studies of effective ghost gear prevention and removal efforts.
GGGI Best Practices Richmond Workshop
In May 2025, the GGGI convened a knowledge-sharing workshop with 24 fisheries stakeholders from Canada, Mexico, and the USA in Richmond, British Columbia. This 1.5-day workshop brought together fishers, NGOs, the private sector, and government agencies from the three countries to discuss strategies for addressing ghost gear in their respective regions, with a focus on lobster and crab fisheries. The GGGI presented an overview of the NANCI project and introduced the BPF, and fishers and association representatives from Canada (British Columbia Crab Fishermen’s Association, Pacific Prawn Association, and Westward Venture Fisheries), Mexico (Punta Abreojos Red Spiny Lobster Fishing Cooperative), and the USA (Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation) shared information on the main gear types used in their fishery and challenges related to ghost gear. Our gear technology partner, Buoy.fish, and one of our NGO partners in Mexico, Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI), shared case studies on the use of gear-tracking technologies to prevent gear loss and gear removals conducted in Mexico. Participants overwhelmingly found the workshop highly useful, comprehensive, and important for their work.
Mexican Senate Chamber’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Commission of the Mexican Republic Meeting to Address ALDFG in Mexico
At an April 1, working meeting on ALDFG, which was held at the Senate Commission on Fisheries and Aquaculture with its president Senator Ivideliza Reyes, GGGI Senior Director Ingrid Giskes and GGGI Project Coordinator for Latin America Claudia Cecelia Olimon provided a presentation on the GGGI’s work in the region. The meeting allowed the GGGI to raise ALDFG-related issues to the new Mexican legislature. The GGGI also presented the document “Foundations for Addressing Ghost Fishing Gear in Mexico: From Legislation and Public Policy” and explored opportunities for collaboration with the Commission. Sen. Reyes acknowledged the importance of continuing constructive dialogue about proposals and legislative solutions to prevent, mitigate, and remediate the negative impacts caused by ALDFG on marine ecosystems and biodiversity. She reaffirmed the Senate’s commitment to strengthen the legal framework on this matter.
Ghost gear removals
The GGGI conducted several removals with local partners along Mexico’s coast in 2025. Between January and March, gillnets, fishing lines, and lobster traps were removed from rocky reefs near La Paz and from a kelp forest near Natividad Island. Gillnets and fishing lines were removed from rocky and coral reefs from Yucatan and Quintana Roo between April and May. During the fall, the GGGI worked with COBI and the Punta Abreojos Fishing Cooperative to remove lobster traps, gillnets, anchors, and barred sandfish traps off the coast of Punta Abreojos, Baja California Sur. The GGGI was also able to conduct a Best Practices Framework workshop while a Professional Association of Diving Instructors teacher who is certified in ALDFG removal provided training to the participating fishers. The GGGI also hosted an ALDFG removal, in collaboration with COBI and the Sirenas de San Blas, during the Regional Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture Festival in San Blas, Nayarit on November 14-16. Representatives from the International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF), Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans (CEDO), and the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (CONANP) observed the challenges and complexity involved in removing ALDFG from the sea floor. Learn more about the San Blas removal in this short video.
Advocacy Campaigns
Mexican Legislative Action
The Mexico Oceans Caucus, which was established in 2025, incorporated strengthening ALDFG-related legislation as one of its five thematic pillars. This was a huge milestone for the GGGI and NANCI. The GGGI collaborated with ICCF to conduct a technical analysis of two proposed reforms to the General Law on Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture (one promoted by Mexican Senator Armando Ayala and one promoted by CONAPESCA). Some items that ICCF and the GGGI included were:
Incorporating the prevention, mitigation, recovery, and final disposal of ALDFG as an explicit objective of the Law, which would make it possible to establish a normative basis for ALDFG public policies, regulations, and standards.
Explicitly and legally defining the concepts of ghost fishing gear and ghost fishing, based on international agreements and recommendations from organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), with the aim of establishing obligations related to ALDFG prevention, recovery, traceability, and reporting.
Strengthening and clearly defining the powers of the fisheries authority to coordinate a national policy on ALDFG, including co-management mechanisms for ghost fishing gear.
Establishing a National Registry of Fishing Gear Losses and Incidents Involving Marine Species to enable the generation of accurate information on the scope of the ALDFG problem and support the targeting of surveillance and co-management actions.
Strengthening inter-institutional coordination to ensure the proper management of waste generated by fisheries activities, including ALDFG as well as end-of-life fishing gear.
New project videos
The GGGI developed an educational video to showcase the impact of its work in Mexico via the NANCI project since the project began in 2021. The video features footage from gear removal dives and local net collection efforts, the deployment of the Buoy.fish gear-tracking devices, meetings to develop Mexico’s first national ghost gear strategy and predictive model, and our work with Bureo to collect end-of-life fishing nets for recycling.
Technology pilot project
Following the success of the gear marking pilot project conducted with Mexican fishers in 2024, the GGGI partnered with Buoy.fish again in October 2025 to test these long range-enabled smart buoys in Canadian fisheries. Buoy.fish’s smart buoys use low power, high-range wide area network (LoRaWAN) signals to track fishing gear locations and notify fishers if their gears’ location has changed. The GGGI and Buoy.fish worked with local fishers to trial these buoys in Nova Scotia lobster fisheries, focusing mainly on lobster fishing area (LFA) 35 near the Bay of Fundy. The team trained local fishers and stakeholders to use these buoys and software and delivered 20 smart buoys to each of the three participating vessels in the pilot project (60 buoys in total) before the LFA 35 fishing season opened in October 2025. The pilot project demonstrated the viability of these smart buoys as a cost-effective way to prevent gear loss in Canadian lobster fisheries, while providing critical insights into connectivity performance, fisher usability, and operational readiness for the use of smart buoys. Learn more from this educational video.
Recycling
The GGGI continued its work with Bureo to implement recycling solutions for end-of-life fishing nets in Mexico. In 2025, Bureo collected 40,900 kilograms of nylon nets from two fisheries in Mazatlán, which have been shipped to Bureo’s recycling facility in Chile. In response to the need for solutions to monofilament gillnets, which are widely used in Mexico’s artisanal fisheries, the GGGI and Bureo launched a monofilament net recycling pilot project, in partnership with Recicladora Ambiental BCS (REAM), a recycling company in Los Planes, Baja California Sur. Monofilament nets are particularly challenging to recycle due to their ease of becoming tangled and the relatively high melting temperature of the material. REAM successfully shredded and extruded monofilament nets together with agricultural plastic waste to produce plastic lumber containing 25% fishing nets (half each of monofilament and multifilament) and 75% agricultural plastics. The pilot project demonstrates the strong potential for a self-sustaining and scalable solution to address monofilament gillnets. The GGGI and Bureo will continue working with REAM to refine the recycling process, increase the recycling of monofilament content, and expand applications of potential end products such as outdoor benches.
Below: Punta Abreojos removals 2025 - photos by Leonardo Gonzales
Below: Baja California Sur removals 2025 - photos by COBI
Project Summary
(2024)
Capacity Building
We prioritize the capacity for the prevention of ALDFG by raising stakeholder awareness through our convening of training workshops. The GGGI participated in the third Regional Festival of Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture held on November 27-29 in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. At the festival, the GGGI convened a workshop with 41 fisheries stakeholder participants. At the workshop, we provided information about the scope and impact of ghost gear in Mexico as well as best practices for addressing ghost gear, with time for dialogue and discussion among participants. We also provided each participant with a printed Spanish version of the GGGI’s Best Practice Framework for the Management of Fishing Gear. Also, during the festival, the GGGI provided a presentation on NANCI during a private meeting with the National Association of Aquaculture and Fisheries Owners.
Ghost Gear Removals
Together with experts from local NGOs Comunidad y Biodiversidad (COBI) and Ecosistemas y Conservacion, Proazul Terrestre (ECO), a large seine net from La Paz Bay was removed inside the Espíritu Santo Archipelago National Park Marine Protected Area. A tuna vessel lost the net about 35 years ago. COBI and ECO divers confirmed the presence of the net in 2021 after local fishers informed them about it. COBI and ECO conducted another verification dive on November1, 2024, to evaluate the removal of the net, which they confirmed was on the sandy and rocky seafloor at a depth of 34-60 meters. Between November 25-27, 2024, COBI and ECO worked with rangers from the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (CONANP) and other local NGOs with specialized divers to cut the net, release fauna that were still alive (starfish, crabs, sea cucumber, and snails), and extract about 500 kg of net. Because the net was in a good enough condition to be reused, it is going to serve as a biobarrier that will be installed by local NGO Mar Libre. The purpose of these biobarriers is to prevent debris from reaching the sea during the rainy season. An Instagram posting by ECO acknowledges the GGGI. The GGGI also supported other ghost gear removals efforts, including an effort in January and February supported by the local group Pesca ABC to collect more than 22,700 pounds of EOL gear from the Upper Gulf of California.
Advocacy Campaigns
Other actions that we are taking to reduce ghost gear include engaging with the legislative and executive branches of the Mexican government to ensure decision-makers have accurate information about the scale and impact of ghost gear in Mexico. With support from our partners, we are doing this by providing technical input to strengthen bills to be introduced in the Mexican Congress.
On February 21, 2024, the GGGI co-hosted a roundtable with the International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF Group) and Mexico’s Senate Committee on the Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change to discuss proposed changes to current laws that would include elements to combat ghost gear. Experts were invited to provide input, and the GGGI’s NANCI Coordinator, Claudia Cecilia Olimon, presented this project. Several NANCI partners attended the roundtable, including Bureo, CEDO Intercultural, Hagamos Más, Pesca ABC, and Wildcoast, along with stakeholders from academia and the private sector. Mexican government officials also participated, including representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (CONANP), the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA) and the Institute for Research in Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture (IMIPAS, formerly INAPESCA).
In advance of Mexico’s general election in June 2024, the GGGI and the ICCF Group prepared a brief in Spanish summarizing Mexico’s progress on ALDFG to be shared with newly elected government officials, NGOs, and other stakeholders to ensure awareness of these issues during the governmental transition. In late June, the GGGI and the ICCF Group met with key stakeholders in Mexico City to discuss strategies for addressing ALDFG in the context of the recent elections.
Technology Pilot Project
Another action for reducing ghost gear is the use of gear-marking and gear-tracking technologies that can facilitate the timely retrieval of gear that becomes lost.
Together with the GGGI’s technology partners and the Regional Federation of Fishing Industry Cooperatives of Baja California (FEDECOOP) — which includes 14 fishing cooperatives with more than 1,200 coastal fishers operating in the Baja Peninsula — we selected the red spiny lobster fishery in Punta Abreojos, Baja California Sur, to conduct the gear-tracking pilot. We conducted the pilot with two types of Buoy.fish tracking devices: one that uses low-power, long-range (LoRa) wide-area networks designed to wirelessly connect battery operated equipment to the internet, and one that uses integrated satellite tracking technology.
The GGGI, together with Buoy.fish and our local partner Pronatura, convened more than 50 fishers for a workshop on October 29, 2024. The workshop featured information on the scope and impact of ghost gear in the region and the importance of quickly recovering lost gear in order to mitigate damage. At the workshop, Buoy.fish introduced the gear-tracking devices and explained the installation of the technological infrastructure and the participation of the five selected fishing vessels. Each vessel installed 16 tracking devices distributed across different sites within each vessel’s fishing zone, ensuring even coverage. A total of 80 tracking devices were deployed throughout the fishing area.
The buoys and panga (vessel) trackers have been used daily by the local lobster fishers since the instruments were deployed at the end of October. The Buoy.fish team regularly communicates with FEDECOOP to monitor and ensure the success of the pilot project.
Recycling
Our objective is to support the transforming of ghost gear into consumer products. One of our core NANCI partners, Bureo, is a private business that is a leader in collecting nets and in recycling net components. Bureo, with support from the GGGI, installed a net collection hub in Mexico for pre-processing EOL fishing nets, including storing nets, cutting and washing them, and drying and packing them for processing.
In 2024, Bureo recycled 282,061 pounds of nylon and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) nets from Mexico.
Net removals in La Paz Mexico 2024. Photo credit: Leonardo Gonzalez.
Mexican Senate roundtable, February 2024
Tech pilot project in Punta Abreojos, Mexico. Photo credit: Pablo Curiel
Net removals in La Paz Mexico 2024. Photo credit: Leonardo Gonzalez.
Separating nets in Yavaros, Mexico. Photo credit: Xchel Perez
Project Summary
(2023)
Thanks to the support of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), the Builders Initiative, and individual donors, the North American Net Collection Initiative Signature Project enables the GGGI to significantly strengthen efforts to address ALDFG in North America. NANCI is North America’s first transnational program to collect and transform end-of-life fishing nets into high-value consumer goods.
Working with our recycling partner Bureo, in 2023 we collected and recycled 111,834 kg of nets, primarily from Mexico’s northwest fishing companies. Nets were collected, stored, cut, washed, dried, and packed at the Ensenada, Mexico pre-processing hub. Then, the nets were shipped to a processing facility in Chile for recycling.
We held several training sessions in May and June with our local partner WILDCOAST, based on the first comprehensive ALDFG predictive model and map of ALDFG hotspots in Mexico’s waters (a joint effort in 2022 by the GGGI, NRC, the Manta Caribbean Project, and Pronatura Noroeste). During these sessions, fishers, and other stakeholders were trained on ALDFG prevention, including strategies for reducing gear loss and for safely removing gear from the marine environment. Two verification dives were conducted with local divers to groundtruth the predictive model for ALDFG in Mexico’s waters and to remove ALDFG from Huatulco National Park in Oaxaca, Mexico.
In August, representatives from the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. gathered virtually for the first Trilateral Government Roundtable on ALDFG entitled “Advancing Cooperation to Address Ghost Gear in North America.” The meeting drew 43 participants. From Canada, attendees represented Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans (DFO); and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). From the USA, attendees represented the U.S. State Department, NOAA, and the United States Trade Representative (USTR). From Mexico, attendees represented the Secretariat of the Navy, the National Commission of Aquaculture and Fishing (CONAPESCA), the Energy Secretariat (SENER), the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE), the National Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INAPESCA), the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA), the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (CONANP), the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), the International Conservation Caucus Foundation, and the House of Senators from Mexico.
In November, with our local partner CEDO Intercultural, we lead 2 ALDFG workshops—one in Guaymas and one in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico—to discuss the implementation of the GGGI Best Practice Framework for the Management of Fishing Gear (C-BPF) for the Mexican Pacific hake, shrimp, and sardine fisheries. The meetings were a great success with more than 40 attendees, including fisher representatives and fisheries authorities. Another purpose of the meeting was to benefit from local fishers' knowledge of the location of ALDFG to guide future removals.
To better understand the legalities surrounding ALDFG in the region, the GGGI commissioned a multidisciplinary legal analysis of ALDFG in Mexico. The report identified strategic points of engagement with the Mexican government and other influential actors, and it identified effective partners to advance ALDFG action in Mexico. We also started a collaboration with the International Conservation Caucus Foundation to engage with the legislative and executive branches within the Mexican government to ensure decision-makers have accurate information about the scale and impact of ALDFG in Mexico’s waters.
Under the NANCI project umbrella and with GGGI funding support, the local Mexican NGO Hagamos Mas is tackling ALDFG. The focus areas for Hagamos Mas to combat ALDFG have been the Santa Rosalía-Mulegé corridor (Sea of Cortes) and the San Ignacio Lagoon (on the Pacific), both of which are located in Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. Hagamos Mas has conducted communication programs on marine conservation topics, and has coordinated the collection of ghost gear and end-of-life gear by fishers who were paid by the weight of the material returned. In addition, Hagemos Mas created an implemented an education program called “Educar para la vida” (Teach for life) to raise awareness about marine plastic debris and ALDFG, especially among children. In total, 647 elementary school students have been taught about the importance of marine conservation. In 2024, Hagamos Mas will expand the project and plans to include end-of-life fishing gear recycling activities for local communities.
Following the success of the first phase of the NANCI project, which began in 2021, the second phase was launched in June 2023, with NANCI partners gathering in Ensenada, Mexico, to share knowledge, lessons learned, challenges, and successes. Participants included CONANP, INAPESCA, Wildcoast, Pronatura, Hagamos Mas, WWF, NRC, CEDO Intercultural, CANAINPESCA, UAM, Pesca Azteca, and Baja Aquafarms, among others. The event included a visit to Bureo’s Ensenada hub, where end-of-life gear is preprocessed for recycling.
Project Summary
(2022)
Working with partners Pronatura Noroeste and Manta Caribbean Project, on-the-ground fishers surveys were conducted to perform a nationwide assessment to learn about the causes, frequency and impacts of ALDFG across all coastal states in Mexico. Working together with NRC, and using data collected from these fisher surveys, a predictive model has been developed to identify areas for potential gear loss in the Pacific and Atlantic waters of Mexico and to direct efforts where the potential for ALDFG presence is more likely.
Working together with the Inter-Ministerial Commission for the Sustainable Management of Seas and Coasts (CIMARES) and WWF Mexico, the GGGI drafted the first national strategy to prevent, mitigate and remediate ALDFG in Mexico. In September 2022, the GGGI co-hosted an ALDFG Action Plan Workshop in Mexico City. Twenty officials from the Mexican government participated, representing the more than 12 Mexican government agencies tasked with addressing this issue at the national level. By the end of 2022, the plan was preapproved by federal agencies, and it is now being prepared for final approval and publication in Mexico’s official gazette.
Working with Bureo, an EOL fishing gear collection hub to process nets from Mexico was established in Ensenada (in Baja California, Mexico, near the U.S. border), where EOL fishing nets are being collected, preprocessed, packed and sent to Bureo’s new facility in Oxnard, CA. Bureo is a specialist in creating solutions to EOL fishing nets. It works with local communities and fishing companies to collect EOL fishing nets to be recycled into Bureo’s NetPlus material, which can then be made into new products such as skateboards, sunglasses, and more. By the end of 2022, 14 tons of EOL gear from Mexico were sent to be recycled and another 55 tons were collected for processing.
The GGGI also led workshops to raise awareness about the scope and impact of ALDFG in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, and to increase the uptake of gear management best practices. During March 17-18, 2022, a workshop in Ensenada brought together 35 participants from at least 15 regions in Mexico, mainly from Mexico’s Pacific Northwest. Attendees were from a variety of sectors in Mexico, including NGOs, federal and state government (Navy, Inapesca, Conanp, Conapesca, Foreign Affairs and Sepesca), fishing industry (Canainpesca and fisher representatives), and the seafood private sector. During the March workshop, Bureo and Grupo Pinsa (a tuna and sardine production and commercialization company) signed an agreement to provide EOL nets to Bureo’s collection and recycling program. On July 27, 2022, another workshop, this time in Cancun, brought together 33 participants from the federal government (Navy, Semarnat-Profepa, Semarnat-Conanp, various natural protected area (NPA) directors, foreign affairs), state governments (Yucatan and Quintana Roo), NGOs (WWF, Parley for the Oceans, CoBi, Coral Reef Alliance, Grupo Tortuguero, Amigos de Isla Contoy and the Manta Caribbean Project), private sector (Bureo and Ola Mexico), academia (Metropolitan Autonomous University and the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV)), and fishers from Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatan. Workshop topics across both workshops included best practices for gear management and interactive sessions focused on issues such as using the GGGI Ghost Gear Reporter app and solving hypothetical ghost gear case scenarios.
End-of-life net collection - photo credit: Edgar Lima.
C-BPF workshop Cancun, July 2022.
CBPF workshop Ensenada, March 2022.
ALDFG Action Plan Workshop, September 2022 - photo credit: Edgar Lima.
End-of-life fishing nets at Bureo’s facility in Ventura, California.
Project Summary
(2021)
In 2021, together with our local and international partners, we conducted research on the volume of end-of-life fishing gear in Mexico, reached key fisheries stakeholders willing to get involved in the net collection and recycling program, and developed a predictive model to identify areas with high ALDFG potential in the Pacific and the Atlantic waters of Mexico. The Government of Mexico and the GGGI co-hosted a virtual roundtable, which brought together 57 national and regional stakeholders to discuss collaborative action on ghost gear as part of Mexico’s commitment to the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. The event aimed to raise awareness about the scope and impact of ghost gear in Mexico and to begin identifying gaps and opportunities for building capacity within the Mexican government to address ghost gear.
Together with UN FAO, we trained our NGO partners in Mexico on conducting fisher surveys to refine the predictive model and contribute to a global study on gear loss. We also worked with the Government of Mexico to identify its needs and lay the groundwork for a regional ALDFG action plan for Mexico to be further developed in 2022. We also fostered trilateral collaboration on ghost gear between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, hoping to expand future iterations of this project in these three countries as well as in the Latin American and Caribbean community.
Looking ahead to 2022, we continued to work with our project partners to operate a fishing gear collection hub in Ensenada and work with local fishers to collect and process end-of-life nets for recycling. We laid the groundwork to conduct fisher surveys in all coastal Mexican states in 2022 to evaluate ghost gear impact, organize fisheries stakeholder workshops to raise awareness and promote training on best practices for gear management and for gear loss prevention, detect and remove ghost gear from sensitive habitats; and track results of the mapping and removal work via the GGGI Ghost Gear Reporter App and global data portal. This activities help to support a healthy ecosystem, raise awareness about ghost gear with local fishers and communities, and provide capacity building and technical expertise for locals on the ground to continue these efforts.
End-of-life fishing nets ready for processing to be put into Bureo’s supply chain - photo credit: Ingrid Giskes.
Project partners
Partners
Buoy.fish
Bureo
Government of Mexico
Hagamos Más
Manta Caribbean Project
Natural Resources Consultants
ProNatura Noroeste
Wildcoast
WWF Mexico
Funders
Builders Initiative
Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)
NOAA Marine Debris Program
