Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear is a distinct driver of marine pollution. It is durable, invisible once drifting or sunk, and efficient at what it was designed to do: catch. This article explains how ghost gear forms, why impacts are disproportionate compared to other marine debris, and which interventions—offshore recovery in the sea and interception along coastal areas—reduce harm today while prevention scales.

Scale and pathways

Ghost gear originates from routine operations (storms, snags, gear conflicts), illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, and end-of-life disposal gaps. Once adrift, nets, lines and traps travel with currents or sink to benthic zone (the seabed where sediments accumulate). Because synthetic polymers persist in marine environments from decades to centuries, ALDFG (Abandoned, Lost, or Otherwise Discarded Fishing Gear) continues to fish unselectively, entangling turtles, seabirds and marine mammals, abrading corals and sponges, and smothering habitats. Forthermore, macroplastics fragment into microplastics, increasing exposure through ingestion across food webs.

Why impact is outsized

Ghost gear is structurally different from bottles or packaging: it is engineered for capture. A single gillnet wall, a string of traps or a longline can keep fishing long after loss. Benthic litter (seabed accumulations) damage slow-growing habitats; floating rafts carry invasive species; and derelict gear poses safety risks to navigation. Because gear volumes are concentrated in fishing grounds, harm clusters where biodiversity and livelihoods depend on the Ocean. Stocks of legacy plastic already stranded in rivers and marine environments mean that even with upstream progress, ocean cleanup remains necessary to address what persists.

Human and economic costs

Entanglement reduces survival rates for protected species; gear fouls propellers and damages active gear; beaching hurts coastal tourism; and fishers bear time and repair costs. Where local waste systems are underfunded, end-of-life gear disposal can leak into the environment. Prevention—gear marking, port reception facilities, extended producer responsibility—must be paired with verified recovery to cut near-term mortality.

A practical sequence matters: who acts, where to act first, why timing matters, and how results stay circular and transparent.

Ogyre’s role in the chain

Ogyre is the first global platform based on the Fishing for Litter model, committed to recovering plastic and waste through a network of local fishers active in Italy, Brazil, Indonesia, and Senegal. It operates in the sea—recovering debris encountered during normal fishing activity or via targeted missions—and along coastal areas, intercepting ocean-bound waste before it reaches marine environments. Collected materials are delivered to certified cooperatives for sorting, recycling, or responsible end-of-life. Each load is recorded with standardized data and secured on blockchain to guarantee transparency, traceability and data integrity across the recovery chain.

Target the hotspots

Because gear is most often lost where it is used, the most reliable hotspots mirror patterns of fishing effort and local hydrodynamics. Offshore operations must begin in areas with high reported gear loss, such as trawl grounds, gillnet sets and pot fisheries. Along coastal areas, the focus must be on accumulation points, including river mouths, port basins and prevailing downwind beaches, where ocean-bound waste tends to converge. Prioritization improves when fishers’ local knowledge is combined with drift models and incident reports that indicate recent losses.

Why it matters now

Delays increase damage because leakage pathways are slow and cumulative. Macroplastics in rivers and in the Ocean fragment over time, and ghost gear continues to catch indiscriminately. Recovery immediately reduces entanglement and limits habitat abrasion, while upstream measures such as improved waste management, gear designed for circularity and producer responsibility scale in parallel. Recovery complements prevention and does not replace it, and together these measures form a credible pathway for ocean cleanup within a circular economy.

Ghost gear is a discrete, solvable fraction of ocean plastic. Because it keeps fishing once lost, the ecological return of each kilogram recovered can be high. The most effective programs act in the sea and along coastal areas, support the recovery chain end-to-end, and publish verifiable data. Prevention remains the long-term solution; verified recovery is the bridge that protects marine life and livelihoods now.

• European Environment Agency – EEA (2020), Plastics, the Circular Economy and Europe’s Environment – A Priority for Action link
• FAO (2021), Seabed Sources of Marine Litter link
• OECD (2022), Global Plastics Outlook link
• Ogyre (2025), Ogyre Code of Conduct link
• Ogyre (2025), Ogyre Protocol link
• Rochman C.M. et al. (2022), Macroplastics in an era of Microplastics link
• UNEP/MAP – Plan Bleu (2019), Socioeconomic Analysis of Marine Litter Key Best Practices to Prevent/Reduce Single Use of Plastic Bags and Bottles link
• United Nations Environment Programme – UNEP (2016), Marine Plastic Debris and Microplastics: Global Lessons and Research to Inspire Action and Guide Policy Change link
• United Nations Environment Programme – UNEP (2021), From Pollution to Solution: A Global Assessment of Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution link
• United Nations Environment Programme – UNEP (2023), Turning off the Tap: How the world can end plastic pollution and create a circular economy link
• United Nations Environment Programme – UNEP (2024), Global Waste Management Outlook 2024 link
• WWF (2020), Stop Ghost Gear. The Most Deadly Form of Marine Plastic Debris link
• WWF (2022), Impacts of Plastic Pollution in the Oceans on Marine Species, Biodiversity and Ecosystems link

👉 How big is global plastic waste today? link

👉 How does mismanagement fuel marine pollution? link

👉 How does plastic enter the Ocean? link

👉 What is marine litter made of? link

👉 How to classify micro and macroplastics? link

👉 Floating vs. seabed plastic: which is worse? link