What is ghost gear?

If you follow whale-related issues at all, you’ve probably already heard of ghost gear. Some of our readers might be scratching their heads: What are these phantoms lurking in the shadows of our oceans? What is their impact on whales? Far from being supernatural creatures, ghost gear is fishing equipment that has been abandoned, lost, or discarded into the sea. In most cases, the losses are accidental and are caused by the gear getting caught on the seafloor, entanglement with other gear, adverse weather conditions, or damage caused by maritime traffic.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000 tonnes of ghost gear end up in the oceans every year. That’s the equivalent of about 10,000 blue whales! Ghost fishing gear thus represents nearly 10% of the total volume of trash in our oceans. But even if it represents a mere one-tenth of the garbage at the bottom of our oceans, this gear is currently the biggest source of plastic pollution in the marine environment. After all, it is made of highly durable plastic materials such as nylon, polyethylene, or polypropylene. Between 46 and 70% of the microplastic particles currently suspended in ocean waters are thought to come from the extremely slow decomposition of these synthetic fibers.