PRESERVING AND PROTECTING OCEAN HEALTH AND VITALITY
Ghost Gear Haunts Oceans and Threatens Future of Fisheries
One of the most dangerous forms of debris threatening the global oceanic marine environment and countless wildlife species is derelict fishing gear. These abandoned or lost pieces of “ghost gear” continue to trap, entangle and potentially kill fish and animals, destroy habitat and hinder navigation. In 2023, Rich’s leading seafood brands, SeaPak and Morey’s, joined the Ocean Conservancy’s Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) to continue advocating for the responsible management of fishing gear, raise awareness, and support the organization’s worldwide retrieval, disposal and prevention efforts.
“When we first connected with the Ocean Conservancy nearly four years ago, we did so to take sustainability action from a different approach, not just through sourcing and system certificates for our fish and shrimp, but from a preventative stance to help ensure that our oceans and their inhabitants are protected and preserved for generations to come”
– Suzanne Wolke, Marketing Manager, SeaPak.
SeaPak and Morey’s first partnered with Ocean Conservancy in 2020 and joined the Trash Free Sea Alliance ® (TFSA). They became active members, organizing local beach clean-ups and doing their part to attract attention and activism around the issue. The TFSA was later disbanded but SeaPak and Morey’s wanted to maintain this important partnership. The GGGI emerged as an equally critical cause, and the two companies put their support behind the initiative.
“As the leading value-added shrimp and seafood companies in the marketplace, we are dedicated to our long-term commitment to responsible sourcing,” said Ciera Womack, Director, Marketing, SeaPak. “But our sustainability efforts do not end there.”
San Ignacio, B.C.S.
While SeaPak and Morey’s are still new to GGGI, teams are busy gathering information and assessing opportunities to make a meaningful impact. While Rich’s seafood entities are not vertically integrated fishing companies (meaning they do not own boats or aquaculture operations), Wolke says there are still opportunities to learn best practices from the GGGI and pass those on to suppliers and make procurement decisions based on the fishing gear management protocols demonstrated by sustainable vendors. Backed by the valuable insight and knowledge they continue to acquire from the GGGI, SeaPak and Morey’s will further endeavor to closely analyze the fishing practices of potential and current suppliers.
“If there are similar species of fish offered by two different suppliers using varying fishing methods, we can make informed decisions and look at the supplier that is committed to proper fishing gear management practices,” explained Wolke about how they plan to leverage what they’re learning from the GGGI partnership. “In addition, we could look at adding additional species to our portfolio that might be less risky in their fishing methods.”
The Ocean Conservancy’s GGGI launched in 2015 to tackle abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) which is a devasting threat to oceans and the wildlife that call them home.
In a briefing released by Ocean Conservancy in April 2023, Joel Baziuk, Associate Director of Ocean Conservancy’s Global Ghost Gear Initiative, said this about the impact of abandoned gear, “The vast majority of fishing gear is made of plastics, meaning once in the ocean, rivers, or lakes, it never fully goes away. And because fishing gear is designed to trap and kill marine life, it can continue to do so indefinitely. Ghost gear is not only devastating for our ocean, but for the fishers and communities that depend on it for their livelihoods.”
The Haunting Truth About Ghost Gear
GGGI and Ocean Conservancy published a ghost gear fact sheet in 2022 with some alarming figures that put the prevalence and impact of this worldwide threat under a microscope:
- A single abandoned net is estimated to kill an average of 500,000 marine invertebrates, 1,700 fish and four seabirds.
- 70% of floating microplastic debris (by weight) throughout the ocean is fishing gear, primarily buoys.
- 20-25% of lobster pots in the US are lost annually. Therefore, of the 3 million pots set in Maine each year, 600,000 new ghost traps could be added to Maine waters alone in a single season.
- An estimated 5-30% decline in some fish stocks is attributed to the damage inflicted by ghost gear on important marine habitats.
“The GGGI has presented staggering statistics on the impact ghost gear has on our oceans and the marine life that depend on them,” said Womak. “We have a responsibility to help identify and implement solutions that will ensure the long-term viability and health of our oceans.”
Womak noted that messaging printed on SeaPak and Morey’s product packaging may present an opportunity to increase consumer awareness and promote purchase decisions that support sustainability efforts.
“Our own consumer studies indicate that price is the predominant driver of purchase decisions,” said Womak. “However, depending on what kind of seafood consumers are buying, if all things are equivalent, they want to choose the more sustainable option. And product packaging is our opportunity to tell that story at the point of purchase.”
Womak further explained that while levels of consumer knowledge about fishing practices, farmed fish and ocean health may vary, buyers like seeing messaging and a sustainable “stamp of approval” on product packaging, even if they don’t know exactly what it entails.
Promoting SeaPak and Morey’s partnership with the GGGI and Ocean Conservancy will connect the two consumer brands to the tremendous headway the Initiative has already made to combat ghost gear worldwide.
Here are some of the most significant strides the GGGI has made toward protecting and preserving ocean health since 2015:
- Developed and published a Best Practice Framework for the Management of Fishing Gear (C-BPF) and the launch of the GGGI Best Practice Framework for the Management of Aquaculture Gear (A-BPF);
- Successfully caught the attention of the G7, placing ghost gear on their agenda.
- Increased global focus on prevention efforts (while recovery initiatives are still happening, they are dangerous and expensive).
- Developed solutions for end-of-life (EOL) gear in the form of port reception facilities, recycling programs, and extended producer responsibility (EPR) mechanisms to support such initiatives.
- In 2023 alone, the GGGI expanded their membership and added three new member governments; continued to improve their global data portal and add more data from organizations around the world; launched a new webinar series to increase member engagement; and make significant strides in their suite of GGGI Signature Projects around the world, including the North American Net Collection Initiative which collected and recycled 111,834 kg of nets, primarily from Mexico’s northwest fishing companies in 2023.
Also new in 2023, GGGI published an Action Plan Playbook for the Seafood Industry (both wild and aquaculture) to make progress on the issue of ALDFG from within their supply chains. The playbook offers a range of action plan activities and case studies showing successful examples of ALDFG prevention, mitigation, and remediation strategies. Leveraging the guidance shared through GGGI’s Playbook, SeaPak and Morey’s are currently in the final steps of completing an Exposure Analysis and their procurement team is helping field surveys with suppliers to learn more about how ALDFG is handled and to identify opportunities to support those efforts.
In a closing statement from the 2023 annual report, the Global Ghost Gear Initiative stated, “As always, true, meaningful collaboration is the key to success in all things, and this is certainly true when addressing ALDFG internationally.”
By aligning with global efforts to understand and resolve the greatest threats to the oceans that sustain the blue planet, SeaPak and Morey’s are further demonstrating their commitment to providing the highest quality value-added seafood in the industry, while diligently working to preserve the vital resources that feed the global supply chain so that delicious fish, shrimp and other ocean delicacies can be enjoyed by all, and not just today, but for future generations.
“We’re excited to be continuing the Ocean Conservancy partnership we started back in 2020,” said Wolke. “From beach clean-ups to this new ghost gear program, it’s important to realize that there is not just one way to be sustainable. It’s not just about the quality of the fish you buy. There are other meaningful ways that we can impact the industry, the ocean, and the future.”
