May 20, 2008

Ireland to clean up sea of nets

Occasionally there are tales of boats of all sizes being caught up in rogue fishing nets, this can be an inconvenience to larger boats, but for small more fragile craft, this hazard can be seriously dangerous.

These rogue nets are called “Ghost Nets” and not only are they a danger to craft they are also a danger to the seriously low fishing stocks, as they also get caught up in these nets and cannot get free.

Ireland are putting into action a plan called “Operation Deepclean” having been given funding through the European Union to a tune of nearly £400,000, they intend to clean up the coast line of these ghost nets once and for all. It has been estimated that there are around 620 miles of abandoned fishing nets lying off the coasts of the UK and Ireland.

Source [Yahoo]