Tangaroa Blue Foundation onboard to protect sea animals
News
The Tangaroa Blue Foundation, an Australian-wide charity dedicated to the removal and prevention of marine debris, has joined the GGGI.
By joining the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI), the foundation brings an army of hands-on volunteers and its vast collection database to help remove and reduce lost and abandoned fishing gear. Ghost gear entangles and kills hundreds of thousands of animals each year.
Saving marine life together
The GGGI was launched in 2015. It’s the first global alliance working to solve the problem of lost and abandoned fishing gear, a type of marine debris known as ‘ghost gear’. Together with our GGGI partners, we reduce, remove, and recycle ghost gear, and help rescue animals entangled in it.
Tangaroa Blue Foundation coordinates the Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI), an on-ground network of volunteers, communities, organisations and agencies around the country monitoring the impacts of marine debris along their stretch of coastline.
Since the AMDI started in 2004, more than 7.3 million pieces of marine debris have been removed from the Australian coastline. Data on the debris is entered into the Australian Marine Debris Database to help identify what is impacting different sections of the coast, and to track where those items are coming from.
Sea animals are suffering
More than 640,000 tons of fishing equipment is left in the world’s oceans each year. Reports show that this debris affects more than 800 species of marine life. Many nets lost in global waters are enormous – often far bigger than football fields – trapping and killing marine life under the surface. Mostly made of plastic, ghost gear is also highly durable and can stay in the oceans for up to 600 years.
“We’re proud to welcome Tangaroa Blue Foundation, with its network and its knowledge, as a pivotal new member of the GGGI,” said Ingrid Giskes, the head of our Sea Change campaign, and a GGGI steering group member.
“Ghost gear is a truly global problem that knows no borders, and Tangaroa Blue Foundation will surely play a crucial role in helping us remove, monitor, and reduce ghost gear which causes such immense suffering for sea animals.”
Image credit: Michael Pitts/Naturepl.com