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A TRULY PLASTIC NEUTRAL FISHERY
A truly plastic neutral fishery. The Azores tuna fishery leads the industry by cleaning the ocean, removing more than 1000 times more plastic from the ocean than lost through their own operations.
In the inaugural Plastic Neutral Project in 2021, the Azores pole-and-line fishery became the world’s first ‘plastic neutral’ fishery. This year, the Azorean pole-and-line fleet rose again to the challenge and was not only able to maintain its “plastic neutral” status but did so with 56% of the fleet participating in the 2022 competition, collecting 620.65 kg of marine plastic, thus removing 1,241 times more plastic than the amount this fishery lost through its own operations.
Plastic pollution is a huge threat to our oceans where plastic litters our coastlines, entangling endangered animals and threatening sensitive marine habitats. When broken down to small enough pieces, ocean plastic is ingested by wildlife and accumulates up the food chain all the way to humans. In total, around 14 million tons of plastic are disposed of at sea every year and the nature of plastic means that it can take decades, even centuries, to fully degrade. Therefore, almost all of the plastic ever created still exists somewhere today, even in dynamic environments like the ocean. When left at sea, plastics can drift for thousands of miles until they are removed. This means that, as well as spreading diseases and contributing to the invasion of alien species to an environment, they will regularly enter the waters of those who did not cause the pollution.
• Nylon cables (253.35 Kg),
• Fishing reflectors (118 Kg), and,
• Nylon multifilament nets (114.5 Kg).
On the project, Carla Damaso, Presidente da Direcçao OMA says:
“This second year of the competition showed the dedication of Azorean tuna fishers and their important role in driving improved environmental practices at-sea and helping tackle environmental issues such as ghost fishing. The competition is creating awareness of ghost fishing issues and it’s clear that we’ve now developed a model of collecting fishing gear out at sea that can extend successfully throughout the entire tuna fleet of the Azores and can be replicated by other fleets across the globe”
Charles Redfern, Managing Director, Fish4Ever says;
“It is essential that we support initiatives such as this competition in order to protect marine life and ocean habitats from the threats of plastic pollution. Through attaining plastic neutral status for two years running, the Azores pole-and-line fishery has shown it has the lowest plastic footprints of any fishery in the world. We could do so much more in terms of positive impact and support of exemplary fisheries like this if we were able to get more traction in the marketplace where the end products sell and so it helps us so much to have pro-active consumers and especially retailers supporting these great stories.”
