Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 171

THE STATE OF WORLD FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE 2018
preventive measures should be the priorit y for
reducing ALDFG, alongside measures to remove
existing ALDFG from the marine environment
and to reduce its harmful impacts.
understanding its extent and reducing its impact.
Countries have expressed a growing sense of
urgency to tackle this issue, adopting resolutions
on marine litter, marine plastic debris and/or
microplastics in ever y session of the United
Nations Environment Assembly to date (UNEP,
2014, 2016, 2017). These resolutions build on the
outcome document of the UN 2012 Conference on
Sustainable Development, “The future we want”
(UN, 2012), in which States committed to take
action to reduce marine debris significantly by
2025. The same urgency is reiterated in SDG 14,
particularly its target 14.1 (by 2025, prevent and
significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds,
particularly from land-based activities, including
marine debris and nutrient pollution). Other
significant commitments include the declaration
“Our ocean, our future: call for action” adopted
by UN Member States at the Ocean Conference in
2017 (UN, 2017d) and the G-20 Action Plan on
Marine Litter (G20, 2017).
Building on earlier global reviews on ALDFG
(Macfadyen, Huntington, and Cappel, 2009;
Gilman et al., 2016), FAO and various partners
such as the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI),
the Global Partnership on Marine Litter (GPML),
the Global Programme of Action for the
Protection of the Marine Environment from
Land-Based Activities (GPA) and IMO are
actively working to address ALDFG and
ghostfishing issues. FAO is working to develop
“best practice” g uidelines for various fishing gear
and fisheries and, together with Australia’s
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation (CSIRO), has just beg un
an elaborate global assessment to quantif y the
scale and distribution of gear loss and to
establish a benchmark for monitoring and
evaluating future mitigation measures.
From the fisheries and aquaculture perspective,
two t ypes of ocean pollution are of particular
concern. The first is abandoned, lost or otherwise
discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) from capture
fisheries, which has negative impacts on fisheries
and the marine ecosystem. The second is
microplastics, which are increasingly present in
aquatic environments and are of concern for their
impact on fish as food for human consumption
and on the health of marine ecosystems.
Marking fishing gear, to identif y its ownership
and location and to ascertain its legalit y, is an
integral requirement of the Code of Conduct for
Responsible Fisheries (FAO, 1995) but is still not
universally applied. Properly marked fishing gear
with gear tracking technolog y and an associated
reporting system can reduce ALDFG and its
impacts, including ghostfishing. Gear marking
helps to identif y sources of ALDFG, to aid
recover y of lost gear and to facilitate management
measures such as penalties for gear abandonment
and inappropriate disposal, as well as incentives
for the proper management of fishing gear,
including its disposal. Consistent application of
an approved gear marking system may also assist
the application of measures to identif y and
prevent IUU fishing, which in turn should reduce
gear abandonment and disposal.
Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded
fishing gear
ALDFG has negative impacts on marine
ecosystems, wildlife, fisheries resources and
coastal communities. Some ALDFG continues to
catch both target and non-target species and
entangles or kills marine animals, including
endangered species (“ghostfishing”). Some near-
bottom ALDFG can cause physical damage to the
seabed and coral reefs. Surface ALDFG often
presents a navigation and safet y hazard for ocean
users. Once washed ashore, ALDFG pollutes
beaches with plastic litter that does not readily
degrade. ALDFG is also a source of microplastics
when it disintegrates over time. Retrieval and
clean-up of ALDFG has huge cost implications for
authorities and for the fishing industr y. The
international communit y now broadly agrees that
FAO has been leading the development of
g uidelines for the marking of fishing gear.
Following an expert consultation in 2016, FAO
has conducted two pilot projects to support the
future implementation of the g uidelines: one on
gillnet fisheries in Indonesia focusing on the
practical application of gear marking and lost
gear retrieval in small-scale coastal fisheries,
and the other a feasibilit y study focusing on
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