A new online system is making it easier for commercial fishers to report ghost gear.
The new tool called the ‘The Fishing Gear Reporting System’ allows fishers to report their lost fishing gear through an app on their phone.
Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Bernadette Jordan said the app also makes the reporting process much quicker.
“So if they lose gear they don’t have to go through all of this downloading, filling out, scanning, and sending back,” said Jordan. “They actually just go on the app, put in the coordinates of where they lost the gear, what they lost, then it’s done and that is going to help us so much.
She added that the use of the new system will improve location accuracy which makes it easier to locate the missing gear as well as allow for better data collection.
“We will be able to see if there is an area that they are losing gear more regularly than other areas,” explained Jordan. “Being able to have the data to analyze and find out what that challenges are in specific areas might help us in the future as well.”
The new reporting system was developed through the Federal Government’s Ghost Gear Fund which combats lost and abandoned fishing gear.
The fund has helped remove 224 tonnes of gear from the ocean since being launched in 2019.
Ghost gear is the leading cause of marine pollution and a serious risk to marine mammals and ecosystems.
