UN makes historic commitment to fight Ghost Gear
News
We successfully lobbied the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for fishing nets to be tagged to protect marine animals from Ghost Gear – deadly lost fishing lines and nets.
World Animal Protection team at UN event
This is a massive win for sea animals and represents a huge step forward in addressing the Ghost Gear crisis.
Since 2014, we have been calling on the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for this change so that when nets are lost, and become Ghost Gear, the tags can help authorities trace them to their owners and help tackle illegal dumping at sea.
This is as an essential first step in the global fight against Ghost Gear and will help prevent it being abandoned in our oceans, where it maims and kills hundreds of thousands of dolphins, whales and turtles every year.
Safer sea animals
A global fishing gear ID tagging strategy would give authorities the ability to trace lost nets to their owners, and improve how well they can enforce laws and regulations around the illegal discarding of these nets. This would help drive down the volume of Ghost Gear entering our oceans every year, meaning fewer dolphins, whales and turtles, and countless other marine animals, would be at risk of entanglement, suffering and death.
World Animal Protection team speaking at UN event
You can find out more information about our work at the event – here.
Join our community to make a difference
We campaign to improve the lives of animals in the UK and around the world. Why not join us today?