Lost or abandoned fishing gear—often called ghost gear—causes extensive and lasting damage to marine wildlife and people. Ghost gear can:

• Float with the current, ensnaring turtles and mammals that die slow and painful deaths
• Sink, pinning animals to the seafloor and scouring the substrate
• Shed bits of plastic, poisoning the animals that ingest them and introducing them into the human food chain
• Trap and kill fish, including commercially valuable ones
• Damage coral reefs and coastal mangrove ecosystems
• Pose a serious hazard to boats

In Mexico, ghost nets, which can be hundreds of feet long, have contributed to the near extinction of the vaquita, a porpoise endemic to the Gulf of California.

This project funds the removal of lethal fishing gear from two ecologically important sites in the Gulf of California. The Islas Marías Biosphere Reserve is hugely diverse, with mangroves, dry forests, and coral reefs; it contains almost a thousand plant and animal species. The Isla Isabel Marine National Park is one of the main nesting areas for seabirds in the Pacific.

The sea around these islands sustains whale sharks; marine turtles; seals; sea lions; Minke, fin, and humpback whales; giant manta rays; and many seabirds such as frigatebirds and blue-footed boobies. Many of these species are threatened or endangered. The areas are legally protected, but that does not reduce the ghost gear problem. It is causing real ecological damage there, just as illegal fishing would.

Sirenas de San Blas is a local, women-led initiative. These self-described “mermaids” train women to dive and teach them about marine ecosystems. Following best practices developed by the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, divers map, recover, and catalog abandoned gear. Whenever possible, it is reused or recycled.

Solving the ghost gear problem will require big changes in gear and fishing practices. Meanwhile, it is crucial to clean up significant marine areas to reduce the harm to endangered species.