WWF CALLS ON FISHERS TO: ● Avoid fishing gear loss through implementing fishing and gear management best practices. Fishers should follow appropriate best practices for responsible fishing operations, including complying with spatio/temporal restrictions and sharing locations of static gear to avoid gear and vessel conflicts; marking gear with ownership details and making it more visible; and disposing of end-of-life and damaged gear appropriately in harbour facilities. ● Report lost fishing gear and retrieve it if safe to do so. Fishers should carry retrieval equipment on board and train crew members on safe retrieval methods; report lost fishing gear to the relevant fisheries authorities in real-time, as well as through the GGGI Ghost Gear Reporter App2; retrieve Fishing Aggregation Devices (FAD) that are no longer being tracked; and participate in Fishing for Litter3 schemes if available in the area to the benefit of the marine environment and their fishing grounds. ● Share expertise to prevent and mitigate ghost gear. Fishers should participate in innovative fishing gear testing and share knowledge to prevent impacts from ghost gear; train new fishers on how to avoid fishing gear loss and why it's beneficial to their industry; collaborate in ghost gear retrieval programmes and help to raise awareness about the impacts of ghost gear. WWF CALLS ON THE PUBLIC TO: ● Engage with government representatives to ensure that they take effective action on ghost gear in a transparent and accountable manner and support the establishment of a global binding treaty on marine plastic pollution. ● Call on fishing gear industries and users to demonstrate leadership in implementing preventative, mitigative, and curative measures to address the ghost gear problem wherever possible. © Placebo365/ iStock Unreleased/ Getty Images 7