Written by Tania, Sol and Kat, the ARRI (Aerial Recon and Recovery Initiative) team.
A silent crisis is unfolding beneath the waves of our ocean. Abandoned, Lost, and Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG), also known as “ghost gear”, are the fishing gear left behind or lost in the ocean, haunting our blue planet. This ghost gear wreaks havoc on marine ecosystems, trapping and killing marine life, damaging coral reefs, and releasing harmful chemicals into the water. Coastal regions lack a systematic solution for this problem, which is where the Aerial Recon and Recovery Initiative (ARRI) comes into play.
ARRI is a group of researchers dedicated to combating the issue of ghost gear through a blend of technology, innovation and environmental stewardship. Founded by a dynamic trio - Tania, Sol and Kat - ARRI is paving the way for blue tech in the Gulf of Thailand.
From inspiration to action
ARRI’s journey in Thailand began with Sol’s experience with the Myanmar Ocean Project, where aerial drones and submersible ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) were employed to identify ghost gear across the Myeik Archipelago in southern Myanmar. Witnessing the scale of this issue firsthand and seeing tons of gear removed through aerial surveys, Sol was inspired to test the use of drones for marine conservation in other countries.
It was in Maldives where Sol met Kat, the first drone pilot ever to use a drone to locate a turtle entangled in ghost gear.
During a daily reef aerial survey, Kat spotted an Olive Ridley Turtle entangled in a mass of nets (called Fish Aggregating Device, or FAD). The turtle was desperately swimming against the currents. Kat immediately called for help, and multiple resorts responded. The turtle, found with deep cuts indicating prolonged entanglement, was treated by a veterinarian, but sadly still succumbed to its injuries. This was just one of many animals that have perished in Maldives due to entanglement in ghost gear. Marine wildlife entanglement remains a major problem.
Meanwhile, Tania observed the gradual decline of the coastal environment in her home island of Koh Phangan. She recalls a time in her childhood when the ocean seemed tranquil and secluded, occasionally spotting pods of dolphins on the horizon. Now, the island has changed. At night, the horizon is dotted with green lights from hundreds of fishing boats squatting on the horizon using their lights to lure and catch squid.
Tania’s once-pristine island now has less marine wildlife and increasing ocean pollution.
A united effort
Hearing Sol and Kat’s passionate stories, Tania became excited by the idea of using drones to locate Abandoned, Lost, and Discarded Fishing Gear (ALDFG). Their cause resonated deeply with her, as she realised this method could be applied on her own island, Koh Phangan. With its clear turquoise waters, Koh Phangan was an ideal testing ground for their innovative approach. Pinpointing ghost gear entangled in coral reefs could make a real impact on marine conservation on the island.
Together, the trio founded ARRI, determined to revolutionise marine conservation. The mission? Using cutting-edge technology to conduct aerial surveys, uncover ALDFG along the coastline, and create a comprehensive, island-wide plan to tackle this issue.
Understanding ghost gear
To understand what we do, first you need to know a little bit more about ghost gear. The “A” in ALDFG stands for accidental or deliberate fishing gear that has been “Abandoned”. Deliberate abandonment can occur for various reasons, such as gear becoming entangled on the seafloor, leading fishers to cut lines and leave them behind. The “L” represents the gear “Lost” due to storms or faulty equipment, which can remain active in the environment for months, years, or even decades, continually posing threats to marine wildlife. Lastly, “D” is the “Discarded” gear, intentionally left behind to reduce weight and fuel consumption onboard.
ALDFG wreaks havoc on marine ecosystems, including the indiscriminate entanglement of marine wildlife, such as dolphins, whales, turtles and even seabirds, leading to injury, suffocation, starvation, and, often, death.
Ghost gear also damages fragile coral reefs and prevents their growth. It disrupts essential habitats like seagrass beds and mangrove forests, reducing their capacity to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. With the entanglement of fish and the release of plastic pollutants, the food web is also affected, contributing to a reduction in fish stocks globally. The persistence of ghost gear in the environment exacerbates these threats, perpetuating a cycle of environmental degradation.
While the marine ecosystem is severely affected by ALDFG, it is important to remember that in most cases, fishers also lose out, bearing the dual burden of environmental impact and economic loss from their gear. They don’t want to lose their gear, not only due to the impact on the marine environment, but also from the economic loss they will experience - needing to replace equipment and disrupt their fishing operations. Fishers are constantly working to mitigate gear loss within the industry by developing new methods of gear loss reduction.
Innovative Solutions
There is no reliable estimate of the real amount of ALDFG in the world’s oceans, simply because the ocean is so vast and largely unexplored. ALDFG moves around constantly and often sinks to the seafloor, making it extremely challenging to measure accurately. Furthermore, the global extent of illegal, unmonitored and unregulated (IUU) fishing complicates efforts to determine the amount of gear likely remaining in the sea as ALDFG.
Nonetheless, there have been studies estimating that 2% of fishing gear globally becomes ALDFG, which includes approximately 78,230 km2 of gill nets, purse seine nets, and trawl nets, 739,583 km of longline, and more than 25 million pots and traps.
Traditionally, researchers have relied on costly and inefficient boat-based methods for ALDFG detection, limited in scope and duration. This is where ARRI’s key tools, drones and machine learning, come into play. These innovative approaches are revolutionising near-coastal surveys, allowing swift coverage of extensive areas to rapidly locate gear. What used to take months can now be done in weeks!
The images obtained through aerial survey are highly detailed, with a resolution of up to 1 cm per pixel, and in ideal conditions, can capture depths in-water of up to 20 m. Identified gear locations are extracted with GPS coordinates to within a metre’s precision. This information is then passed on to local collaborators who can remove the gear directly as part of their existing work to protect the environment.
Using machine learning algorithms, it is possible to rapidly scan through thousands of images and identify hidden pockets of ALDFG with remarkable precision. This reduces the time necessary to go from data collection to direct intervention on the ground. This technology also maps coastal marine habitats and detects marine wildlife presence without disturbing their behaviour, offering vast amounts of data for monitoring and conservation.
Collaboration and community involvement
While aerial surveys are revolutionising marine conservation, there is still a lot of useful information collected during clean-ups directly. Hidden in the depths of the seafloor, among the algae, we found gear that were missed by drones! At Leela Beach on Koh Phangan's southeast coast, we discovered five nets through aerial surveys and 16 while snorkelling! These nets were relatively small, less than 1 m across, and covered in algae. This makes them very difficult to see, even from the surface.
This type of data feeds our predictive models to forecast future gear accumulation. Using data from the movement of wind, ocean currents and fishing activity, we are able to estimate where different types of gear are likely to accumulate. As most fishing materials tend to gather in similar areas or follow the same patterns, we can make predictions of gear accumulation across a much wider region than the drone-surveyed area.
Collaboration with fishing communities is crucial for achieving the goals of ALDFG mitigation and is central to the work we do.
Conservationists often rely on fishers’ reports to locate ghost gear for removal. In addition to preventing discarded gear from further impacting the marine environment, raising awareness in communities about fishing gear disposal options is vital. This requires ongoing communication between the fishing communities and conservationists.
We have been fortunate to work with some exceptional local organisations in our clean-up efforts, including passionate NGOs and diverse and resilient fisher communities in the islands of Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. Across the course of these clean-ups, using data from aerial surveys, we have successfully identified and removed over four tons of gear from the marine environment. We are incredibly proud to have had the opportunity to facilitate this endeavour, knowing it has had a tangible impact on the environment, and we are grateful to everyone involved in these clean-ups.
Looking ahead
Despite our successes, the amount of ALDFG we’ve removed is only a small fraction of the gear that remains in the local marine environment. We need to rapidly increase our efforts to create lasting change. In the next phase of ARRI, we’ll tackle a new issue arising from the clean-up efforts: what to do with all the collected gear? Often, gear is too damaged to be reused, and recycling may not be feasible. Certainly, the efforts to remove this gear need to continue.
We’re embarking on a journey to discover alternative solutions for the upcycling and recycling of ghost gear, beginning with the implementation of recycling programs for end-of-life gear.
Our project provides information that can be translated into active conservation and restoration practices. From the collection of data from a wide area of coastline to the identification of gear for rapid removal and high gear density area, it is possible to prevent lasting ecological damage. This method has huge potential for the rapid and large-scale clean-up of coastal marine environments, vital to their restoration. By understanding the intricate connections between ALDFG and coastal ecosystems, we can work towards mitigating these threats and safeguarding our oceans.
We believe that embracing new technologies and fostering partnerships between researchers, conservationists, and fishing communities is the way forward. With each drone flight and every piece of ghost gear removed, we will get closer to a more sustainable and resilient ocean.
Follow us at @arriglobal or check our website https://www.arriglobal.com/ to find out more about our work to combat ghost gear!
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