Race to End Ghost Gear with the U.S. SailGP team!
The U.S. SailGP team is partnering with Ocean Conservancy's Protect Where We Play initiative to protect our ocean from abandoned fishing equipment
The Problem
Ghost Gear is One of the Ocean's Deadliest Threats
The U.S. SailGP Team has joined forces with Ocean Conservancy's Protect
Where We Play initiative to tackle one of the ocean's most pressing threats: ‘ghost gear.’ This lost and abandoned fishing equipment kills marine life, destroys habitats, pollutes our waters, and threatens food security.
Ocean Conservancy is at the frontlines of developing and supporting innovative solutions to combat ghost fishing, working with partners around the world to both remove ghost gear that is currently lost in our ocean, and prevent more from being lost or abandoned in the future.
Together, we're raising awareness and driving solutions to this critical global challenge.
Ghost Gear by the Numbers:
Nearly 1 in 3 fishing lines are lost annually*
45% of all marine mammals impacted* by lost or abandoned fishing gear
86% of all floating macroplastic comes from fishing gear*
*86% of the floating macroplastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (or North Pacific Gyre - whichever term we prefer) is lost fishing gear or fishing-related (Lebreton et. al 2022).
Approximately 5.7% of all fishing nets, 8.6% of all traps, and 29% of all lines are lost annually (Richardson et al 2019)
45% of all marine mammals on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species have been impacted by lost or abandoned fishing gear.(Werner et al., 2016)
Why This Matters to Our Team
Why the U.S. SailGP Team Cares
As athletes who compete on the world's ocean, we see firsthand the impact of marine pollution. Our sport depends on healthy waters, and we're committed to protecting the environments that make our passion possible.
“As a team that competes on the water at the highest level, protecting the ocean is not abstract for us — it’s personal,”
said Mike Buckley, Co-Owner, Team Principal & CEO of the U.S. SailGP Team. “Working alongside Ocean Conservancy and Protect Where We Play allows us to use our platform to shine a light on the threat of ghost gear while supporting real solutions that protect the places where we train and race.
Join Team Ocean – Here's How You Can Help
Your Voice Can Make Waves
Join the thousands who joined Team Ocean and who've pledged to protect our ocean against Ghost Gear and other threats to our ocean!
Sign the Pledge →
Power Real Solutions
Your donation funds ghost gear removal, prevention programs, and policy advocacy that creates lasting change for our ocean.
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Share the Message
Help us reach more ocean advocates. Share this campaign with your community and amplify the call to action.
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Understanding the Ghost Gear Crisis
Ghost gear is abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing equipment that continues to trap and kill marine life for years. Learn why this matters and what we can do about it.
Abandoned fishing nets and gear (known as ghost gear) drift through our ocean for decades, silently trapping marine life and destroying fragile habitats. It’s the deadliest form of marine debris, but it’s also a problem we can solve. That's why Ocean Conservancy is working with partners around the world – academia, NGOs, governments and the fishing industry – through its Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) to combat it, including the team at Emerald Sea Protection Society (ESPS).
Visual Impact Gallery
Ghost gear impact on marine life
Key Facts
• What is ghost gear? Ghost gear— abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear—is the most lethal form of marine plastic debris, with 70-86% of the floating macroplastic in the ocean gyres consisting of ghost gear. It kills marine life through entanglement and "ghost fishing," damages habitats like coral reefs, and threatens food security and maritime safety.
• How big is the problem? 45% of all marine mammals on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species have been impacted by lost or abandoned fishing gear. One study estimates that between 5% - 30% of harvestable fish stocks, depending on the region, are impacted by ghost gear across the world, posing a major threat to human health and livelihoods as well as to global food security.)
• What solutions exist? Addressing this issue involves initiatives like Ocean Conservancy’s Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI), which works with its 150+ member organizations and 24 member governments to remove existing gear and implement preventative measures to reduce gear loss in the future.)
• How does this partnership help?
Our goal is to drive awareness, donations and our collective voices to the long-term impacts that ghost gear is having on our ocean and the critical work being done to solve this issue. Together, fans, teams, leagues and partners around the world can come together to influence policy reforms and protective measures with their local and federal policymakers and help fund critical research and proven solutions through the Global Ghost Gear Initiative.
Learn More About GGGI →
The Ocean Can't Wait
Every signature, every dollar, every share brings us closer to ghost-gear-free ocean. Join the U.S. SailGP Team and Ocean Conservancy’s Protect Where We Play initiative today.
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