You’re helping sea turtles and other marine animals in the Maldives

Image credit: David Leveque

Lost, abandoned and discarded industrial fishing gear – known as ghost gear - is the most harmful form of plastic in our oceans and one of the biggest killers of marine life.  

An estimated 640,000 tonnes of ghost gear is left in our oceans each year – more than one tonne every minute. 

Thanks to your support, the local community on Gemanafushi Island in the Maldives were able to remove 22 times more ghost nets in 2021 than in 2020.

Pictured: Sea turtles entangled in a ghost net. Image Credit: Olive Ridley Project

The nets were then upcycled by the local Women's Development Committee into products that can be sold or used in the community.  

Even though fishery laws in the Maldives only allow one-by-one fishing, industrial ghost nets from other parts of the Indian Ocean have drifted into Maldivian waters, killing turtles and threatening marine habitats. 

Pictured: Ghost fishing gear repurposed into a hammock. Image credit: International Pole and Line Foundation 

This project spurs coastal fisheries to collect and upcycle lost and abandoned plastic fishing nets, and is the result of a collaboration between the International Pole & Line Foundation in collaboration with the Olive Ridley Project began at the beginning of 2020. It was supported by the Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions Award, which was started by World Animal Protection in 2019.

The award honours Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) co-founder and former World Animal Protection campaigner Joanna Toole, whose life was tragically taken in the Ethiopian airlines crash in March 2019.