Our goal was to get a first-hand understanding of how fishing nets are currently dealt with in these ports, and what the Ghost Network could do to make a difference. Ideally, they would be collected and recycled instead of ending up in landfills, or worse, back in the ocean where they would be deadly for marine wildlife.

#tide, a Ghost Network partner, specializes in the up-cycling of ocean-bound plastic, recycling them into plastic granules, a premium raw material that can then be sold to manufacturers. But before this could be done, there were still many questions that needed answers.

On the trip, #tide wanted to get a closer look at the nets that Sea Shepherd volunteers in Croatia have collected so far to see their condition and determine their recyclability. What material are they made from? How degraded are they? How dirty? Are there other contaminations?

Matthias used a special spectrometer to scan and analyze the plastic to discover its composition (shown in the video at the end of this article).

The visit also allowed us to get a better understanding of the fishing communities’ interest in cooperating with the Ghost Network, an important factor in the success of the project, as well as what kind of volume of nets we could expect to collect.

This pilot project, once tested and proven successful, will then become the model used by the Ghost Network in other ports around the world.

You can support the Ghost Network project by donating funds or equipment, particularly bale press machines and containers to store the collected nets. Learn more about how you can help make a difference: https://www.ghostnetwork.org/about

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