EU Project Turns Fishermen Into Ocean Cleanup Heroes

When fishing nets sink to the ocean floor, they don't stop fishing. These abandoned "ghost nets" continue trapping dolphins, turtles, and fish for years, creating deadly underwater graveyards that fishermen themselves fear.

Now the NETTAG+ project is turning the tide with a simple idea: make fishermen the heroes of ocean cleanup. This European Union initiative brings together scientists, engineers, and fishing crews to prevent nets from being lost and recover the ones already down there.

The technology is surprisingly straightforward. Researchers at Portugal's INESC TEC developed acoustic tags that attach to fishing nets, letting crews track them from over two kilometers away using a mobile app. If a net gets lost, fishermen can use sound signals to ask "where are you?" and pinpoint its location on the seafloor.

For nets already resting in the depths, a robotic system called IRIS uses sonar to map the ocean bottom and locate lost gear. The robot can dive to great depths and handle complex recovery tasks that would be dangerous for human divers.

Juan Pablo Pérez, a fisherman in Portugal's Póvoa de Varzim region, knows the problem firsthand. Lost nets create safety hazards for boats and destroy the very ecosystem his livelihood depends on.

That's why fishermen aren't just test subjects in this project. They're full partners, working alongside scientists from the early planning stages through field testing in different sea conditions.

"Fishermen want to work actively to solve marine litter because they are the first to deal with this problem," explains Sandra Ramos, a researcher at Portugal's Marine and Environmental Research Centre. They're not stakeholders watching from the sidelines but active collaborators who helped design even the most high-tech solutions.

The Ripple Effect

The project goes beyond just pulling nets from the water. Researchers are developing policy recommendations for both large-scale industrial fishing and small artisanal operations, sending guidance to European and national fisheries organizations.

Scientists are also studying how abandoned gear breaks down into microplastics and releases chemicals and pathogens into marine ecosystems. Understanding this environmental damage helps make the case for preventing ghost gear in the first place.

Some of the tracking technologies developed through NETTAG+ are already hitting the market, available for fishing operations across Europe. What started as field tests in northern Portugal could soon protect waters from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic.

The fishing industry has often been cast as the villain in ocean conservation stories, but NETTAG+ proves they can be the solution when given the right tools and support.