Vessel crew to gather ghost gear from Nunatsiavut's marine zones
Officials suspect thousands of pieces of discarded gear to be sitting on ocean floor
An expedition to clear discarded gill nets, crab traps and other ghost gear from Nunatsiavut's coastal waters gets underway next week.
Fisheries and Oceans Canada is financing the retrieval project as part of its Ghost Gear Fund. The expedition was an initiative of the Torngat Secretariat, and will cover much of the marine zones included in the Labrador Inuit Land Claims area.
"Environmental conservation is very important," says Craig Taylor, research program manager for the Torngat Joint Fisheries Board, who will be participating in the project. "It's a win-win to be able to get in there and hopefully find some lost gear and get it out of the environment."
In addition to contaminating marine environments, ghost gear can become entangled in other fishing gear, Taylor said. Marine life can also get caught up in discarded nets and crab traps.
The DFO says ghost gear may account for up to 70 per cent of macro-plastics in the ocean by weight.
The Torngat expedition is one of 26 retrieval projects the DFO is supporting between 2020 and 2022 under its Ghost Gear Fund.
Petty Harbour Fisherman's Cooperative was also awarded funding last year for a similar project. That organization conducted a total of 16 retrieval trips in 2020, pulling up nearly 5500 kilograms of ghost gear between Cape St. Francis on the tip of Newfoundland's Northeast Avalon peninsula and Cape Pine on the southern tip.
Taylor said consultations with harvesters have already confirmed the presence of hundreds of pieces of fishing gear in Nunatsiavut's marine zones.
But he and his team believe that number to be in the thousands.
"There's lots of gear that has been lost over the years," he said, "and we're hopeful to be able to find some."
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Taylor said the Torngat expedition team is planning to set out Sept. 22 or 23. The 100-foot vessel will be crewed with a small team including representatives from the secretariat, and a technician who will scan the lower columns of the water using sonar technology.
The expedition is expected to take about a month, Taylor said. It will begin at Groswater Bay and continue north to Hopedale — a distance of about 500 kilometres.
"There's sort of a needle in a haystack situation," Taylor said. "We have a vast area to focus on."
Taylor said, where possible, identifiable gear will be returned to its original owner.
"If it's in a deteriorated ship state, then it will be moved to another function to get repurposed or recycled or just go into a landfill," he said.
"The main thing, of course, is getting it out of the water."
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With files from Labrador Morning