Acronym NetTag
Category
Fisheries
Title Tagging fishing gears and enhancing on board best-practices to promote waste free fisheries Programme Nat. Programme (supported by ESIF)
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National-European Coordinator Marisa Almeida Coordinator email NA
Coordinator institution
CIIMAR - Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research (Portugal)
Institutions involved
ARVI - Cooperative of Fisheries Owners of the Port of Vigo (Spain) ,
INESC TEC - Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science (Portugal) ,
UA - University of Aveiro (Portugal) ,
USC - University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) ,
Start year 2019 End year 2021 Funding (€) € 493,063 Website https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/featured-projects/nettag_en Summary "Marine litter is a growing and critical environmental problem. The fishing industry is a major contributor to marine litter, with over 45% of plastic debris biomass found in the ocean being associated to abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gears (ALDFG). ALDFG is a key issue for fisheries and marine conservation due to ghost fishing, stock depletion, capture of non-target species, (micro)plastics pollution to sea life and hazards to other vessels.
NetTag project aims to reduce and prevent marine litter derived from fisheries by working directly with fishers through an integrative preventive approach including: reducing lost gear by using new technologies (acoustic localisation system) that help fishermen to locate and recover lost gear; promoting better practices on the management of fishing waste through awareness raising actions organised by fishers associations for fishermen.
As part of its project deliverables, NetTag designed and produced a new technological device, currently under testing phase, for the location and recovery of fishing gear under water. This prototype device detects fishing gear through acoustic transponder tags and autonomously approaches and recovers lost gear. It has been designed around minimal hardware costs and complexity to allow its deployment by any vessel, including small inflatable ones.
The project is conducting studies to assess the environmental impact of ALD fishing gear and the social economic impact of marine litter. The first results showed that fishing gear has the potential of releasing micro plastics and absorbing pollutants such as metals and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), but more studies are needed in this area.
NetTag project is very active in awareness raising actions, in particular with Spanish and Portuguese fishermen. Through their workshops, webinars, podcasts and other initiatives such as the Clean Ocean Day, they not only raise awareness within the fishing industry and other stakeholders about the urgent need to combat marine litter but they also increase scientific knowledge on the subject. They directly engage fishermen and discuss best practices for reducing marine litter from their fishing activities."
Keywords
Gear technology;
Wastes;
Fishing technology;
Environmental impact;
Waste management;
Marine Region
33
Bay of Biscay Southern (27.VIIIc)
38
Portuguese Waters (27.IXa,27.IXb)
2
Marine Region Map
