Ghostnet Fishing Colombia

Rich marine ecosystems are degraded by abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gears in the Tribugá Gulf of Colombia. These gears continue to fish and trap animals and thus kill marine life. Concrete management actions are needed to achieve sustainable fisheries and maintain food security and ecosystem health. This transdisciplinary project designs and implements a community-based management strategy. The strategy includes the adoption of new fisheries management measures to reduce the problem of ghost fishing gears and the creation and training of a local group in charge of surveillance and cleaning of ghost fishing gears on identified hotspots. It further concerns with enhancing knowledge and awareness of ecological impacts of ghost fishing and financial mechanisms for long term implementation of the strategy. The project partners with the local ethnic authority which plays a key role in the inter-institutional alliance created to support the co-management of the regional protected area and aims to create opportunities for community participation and to promote that local stakeholders reach agreements on management measures that address ghost fishing.

Study site: The Tribugá Gulf encompasses about 60,000 hectares of coastal and marine ecosystems of the northern Colombian Pacific coast. Along the Gulf, nine coastal communities, with around 9,000 people, depend on artisanal fishing and tourism for food and income. Despite different conservation measures in place, marine biodiversity in the area is threatened by potential port infrastructure, but even more by unsustainable fishing practices and ghost fishing that affect fisheries yields and a recreational tourism sector. Two strategic ecosystems, mangroves, and rocky reef-mounts, locally known as riscales, provide essential habitat to fisheries resources. However, they are suffering from gradual degradation associated to abandoned, lost, or discarded artisanal fishing gears. Local fishers often use riscales as fishing grounds and handlines or nets might get entangled or abandoned. Industrial fishing does not take place within the Gulf area thanks to the establishment of a regional protected area in 2014.

Project partner:

Lead project partner is the NGO Ecomares

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