A clothing and apparel company that uses profits to help ocean cleanup has seen one of its teams use fishing waste as a way to collect plastic pollution from waterways.
A 4ocean group in Bali found a huge abandoned fishing net while on a cleanup operation, and what they did next has gone viral.
After hauling in the massive, damaged net — which could have trapped and killed a number of aquatic creatures — the team took it away and repaired it by hand.
@4ocean Our teams never fail to amaze us! During a cleanup operation, our Bali team stumbled upon a MASSIVE ghost net. Abandoned fishing gear, AKA Ghost Nets, are a huge threat to marine animals as they can cause severe injuries and entanglement. Remember that video of the whale shark entangled in a net? Yeah, not good. Fortunately, our team was quick to find a solution! They took the net home, repaired it by hand, and gave it a fresh coat of paint for its new life. Now a net that once posed a danger to marine life is catching plastic flowing down the river. We didn't write the definition for "up-cycling," but we'd say this is a textbook example!💪 #GhostNets #AbandonedFishingGear ♬ original sound - 4ocean, PBC
They then painted some buoys and added them along the edge before putting the "ghost net" back into the water, stretching from one side of a river to the other.
The buoys kept the net at the surface, with the rest of it dangling underwater. After leaving their creation for a couple of days, they returned to find their little bit of ingenuity had managed to capture huge amounts of trash in the water supply.
"We didn't write the definition for 'up-cycling,' but we'd say this is a textbook example!" 4ocean captioned the post.
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TikTok users were certainly impressed with 4ocean's Bali team, with one commenting: "Oh my goodness! Thank you guys!!! A million thanks doesn't say it enough! This is a genius idea!!"
"Thank you all for a great idea! Use and reuse…WTG! You should be commended for working together and cleaning the waters," added another.
"People like you are going to save the world!" one more TikToker said.
Fishing waste is one of the most deadly sources of pollution in waterways. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, 66% of marine animals can get trapped in old fishing nets, including sea turtles and marine birds. Meanwhile, larger ocean animals like whales can ingest nets, traps, and other debris.
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The organization added that 430 million tons of plastic is being created annually, and a lot of it ends up in water supplies. However, using old fishing nets or even encouraging the fishing industry to collect plastic from rivers and oceans can be an effective way to prevent pollution.
4ocean's Bali team demonstrated just how effective upcycling fishing nets can be, helping to solve two problems at once.
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