Researchers issue warning after discovering 'ghost' threat to coastal cities: 'Many of them are hiding a secret'

Greek coastlines are becoming littered with plastics because of abandoned fish farms, according to Deutsche Welle.

What's happening?

After watching commercial fish farming operations lie abandoned for decades, volunteer groups in Greece have begun dismantling them. 

"There's not much to see at the surface, but many of them are hiding a secret right below: They've been rotting here for years," said DW reporter Adam Baheej Adada.

The process is wrought with challenges. For one, outside organizations need permission from governments to dismantle the abandoned equipment. Even with that permission, nongovernmental organizations have faced lawsuits from the farms' original owners. 

Then there are the logistics of cleanups. Expensive operations are required for diving teams, industrial boats, cranes, and crews with chainsaws to break everything down. 

Why is fishing gear important?

Abandoned fishing gear is a major ecological threat. It continues to indiscriminately entangle wildlife long after the gear was lost. 

Secondly, this ghost gear sheds plastic particles over time. Microplastics find their way back into the fish that people harvest and ultimately end up on dinner plates. Ingesting microplastics is linked to a wide range of health dangers affecting endocrine, neurological, and reproductive systems.  

What's being done about ghost gear?

Organizations such as Healthy Seas, Ghost Diving, and Ozon are working hard to make up the difference. It's possible to take local action by volunteering with these kinds of groups in your area to clean up shorelines. Barring that, donating can help fund expensive operations and cutting fish from your diet can help diminish demand for more farms. 

While there are laws that require fish farm businesses to put down a deposit to cover the costs of potential abandonment, cleanups can be more expensive than that deposit. This incentivizes companies to leave their farms where they are, regardless of environmental damage.  

"This farm behind me is not lost. It's just abandoned. So, there is an owner responsible for this and the system around that owner who is not holding the owner responsible," said Tassos Filippides, executive director of Ozon, per DW. "It's an environmental crime."

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