Ghost Fishing UK land the prize catch at the Fishing News Awards

Ghost Fishing UK, an organization that trains scuba divers to survey and recover lost fishing gear, won the 2022 Fishing News Awards’ Sustainability Award.

The UK-based fishing trade publication’s award is meant to recognize a unique and innovative response to an environmental sustainability issue within the UK or Irish industry. 

Ghost Fishing UK, started in 2015 to recycle or return lost fishing gear to the industry, is run entirely by volunteers. The organization relies on reports of lost fishing gear from diving and fishing community. To date, Ghost Fishing UK has received more than 200 reports, culminating in more than150 survey and ghost gear recovery dives, amounting to more than 1,000 individual dives and diver hours by the volunteer team members. 

“I’ve been a scuba diver since 1991 and have met thousands of divers in that time. I’d be hard pushed to think of one of them that wasn’t concerned about conservation of our marine environment,” the organization’s chairman and technical diving instructor Rich Walker said in a statement. “To be recognised by the fishing industry for our efforts in sustainability is a huge honour for us, and has encouraged our team to work even harder to find, survey and remove lost fishing gear from the seas.” 

 If you are a fisher who knows of any lost fishing gear, you can report it to the charity here: www.ghostfishing.co.uk/fishermans-reporting

The charity is heading to Shetland for a week-long project in the summer of 2023. If you would like to support this project, please contact them at: [email protected]