Ghost net

[1] These nets, often nearly invisible in the dim light, can be left tangled on a rocky reef or drifting in the open sea.

They can entangle fish, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, dugongs, crocodiles, seabirds, crabs, and other creatures, including the occasional human diver.

[2] Acting as designed, the nets restrict movement, causing starvation, laceration and infection, and suffocation in those that need to return to the surface to breathe.

[3] It's estimated that around 48 million tons (48,000 kt) of lost fishing gear is generated each year, not including those that were abandoned or discarded[4] and these may linger in the oceans for a considerable time before breaking-up.

[5] The French government offered a reward for ghost nets handed in to local coastguards along sections of the Normandy coast between 1980 and 1981.

[8] In September 2015, the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) was created by the World Animal Protection to give a unique and stronger voice to the cause.

[6] From 2000 to 2012, the National Marine Fisheries Service reported an average of 11 large whales entangled in ghost nets every year along the US west coast.

[12] Researchers in Brazil used social media to estimate how ghost nets have negatively affected the Brazilian marine biota.

[19] In 2009 world-renowned Dutch technical diver Pascal van Erp started to recover abandoned ghost fishing gear entangled on North Sea wrecks.

Organised teams of volunteer technical divers recovered tons of ghost fishing gear off the Netherlands coastline.

The loop was then closed - after a season's diving 22 tons of fishing gear was sent to the Aquafil Group for recycling back into new Nylon 6 material.

[23] Fishing nets are often made from extremely high quality plastics to ensure suitable strength, which makes them desirable for recycling.

A sea turtle entangled in a ghost net.
Many marine species including turtles , sharks , whales , dolphins , and dugongs become entangled in ghost nets. Most go unnoticed and unrecorded.
A glass float on the beach. Many of these floats for fish nets wash up on island beaches around the Pacific. The loss of the floats can leave fish nets drifting in the open ocean where they continue to entangle fish, birds, and marine mammals.
This monster net found at Pearl and Hermes Atoll in 2014 weighed 11.5 tons