DeFishGear

Introduction

In recent decades the sea has become the largest landfill of waste: sewage, garbage, bulky waste and whole war arsenals were thrown into the sea, thinking that his greatness could be able to receive, dilute and recycle anything. The obvious blunder of this conviction is now clear to people and governments who are trying to limit the production of marine litter with ad hoc rules.

The term marine solid waste (marine litter) defines any persistent solid material (durable) man-produced and abandoned in the marine environment. The waste reach the sea from land-based sources (individual bad habits, improper solid waste management, lack of wastewater treatment plants, illegal disposal of industrial waste, floods, etc..) and from marine sources (illegal disposal of waste produced by passenger ships, cargos, platforms). Also the activities of commercial fishing, mussel and fish farming contribute to the production of marine solid waste when fishing gear (lines, nets, traps, etc..) are accidentally lost or deliberately disposed at sea.

Marine litter or debris consists of a range of materials including plastic, metal, wood, rubber, glass and paper. Items washed ashore are the most prominent signs of marine litter, but most of the litter entering the water is found on the sea floor, both in shallow and deep water, while the remainder floats on the surface.3 It is estimated that 15% of marine debris floats on the sea surface, 15% remains in the water column and 70% rests on the seabed. Most plastics are extremely durable materials and are likely to persist in the marine environment for a considerable period, possibly as much as hundreds of years. However, plastics also deteriorate and fragment in the environment as a consequence of exposure to sunlight (photo-degradation) in addition to physical and chemical deterioration, which is likely to result in numerous tiny plastic fragments called micro-plastics. Fragments of plastic have been shown to concentrate pollutants that have arisen in the environment from other sources.

A common strategy for the Adriatic sea: the project DeFishGear

The international cross-border cooperation project DeFishGear, funded under the European Programme IPA Adriatic, combines the strengths of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro and Slovenia to address the various aspects related to the presence of solid waste in Baltic Adriatic. The objectives of the project are:

to collect data on marine litter in order to assess the sources, distribution, quantity and type;
to study the presence, type, quantity and toxicological effects of microplastic both in the water column and in marine organisms;
to rise awareness among different stakeholders involved in the problem (fishermen, authorities, population, etc.) to prevent the production of marine debris;
to implement practical actions to reduce marine litter, in particular through the activity known as fishing-for-litter[1];
to test and implement new ways of managing and recycling of waste products from fishery (particularly nets and derelict gears);
to standardize the methods of data collection and management used in the Adriatic sea, as well as to share resources, experiences and possible solutions to the problem of marine litter.

[1] Fishing for Litter is an imaginative yet simple initiative that aims to reduce marine litter by involving one of the key stakeholders, the fishing industry. It consists on directly provide fishing boats with large bags to deposit marine sourced litter. When full, these bags are deposited safely on the quayside to then be collected for disposal. This reduces the volume of debris washing up on our beaches and also reduces the amount of time fishermen spend untangling their nets. The Fishing for Litter activities have been implemented from 2005 in the seas around Great Britain, Scandinavia and Western Europe.