About project

The Re:Fish project addressed the problem of plastic pollution and ghost fishing in the Central Baltic Sea, starting with Sweden, Finland and Estonia as pilot areas. Lost fishing gear, including fishing accessories, are present in all seas, lakes and streams where recreational fishing was carried out. Gillnets cause unnecessary suffering to fish, birds, and marine mammals. Additionally, these nets contribute to pollution of both plastic and hazardous substances. It is also a common problem that nets are left outdoors where they fragment and spread microplastics in the environment.

The project did retrieval operations, clean-ups, collection of end-of-life gear, acquisition of knowledge by using citizen science-based methodologies, conducted tests with deposit systems and carried out awareness-raising campaigns about the problems. Re:Fish not only removed plastic from the central Baltic Sea for improved environmental health, it also activated relevant actors (recreational fishers, producers and retailers, NGOs, universities, and authorities) to implement preventive actions and better monitoring of lost recreational fishing gear in the future.