At any given moment, a ship from the nonprofit Sea Shepherd may be stealthily sailing the Mediterranean.
As the BBC reported, the group covertly scours these waters off the coast of Italy to clean up a dangerous fishing method: fish aggregating devices.
An FAD is a general term for a bundle of solid objects and nets, which are strung together along long ropes and anchored to the seabed. Fishers have used them for thousands of years, according to TalkScience, to create a desirable floating shelter for marine life, allowing them to attract fish and enabling an easy catch. They are almost like flytraps, but for fish.
However, many FADs are not made of biodegradable materials and are not properly tracked as Italian law requires. Instead, fishers will cheaply make them out of things like plastic bins, oil and gas containers, and thousands of miles of nylon lines, according to the BBC.
As you might imagine, these rogue FADs are dangerous in more ways than one.
They are so good at luring in fish, and there are so many of them — Sea Shepherd has mapped out 36,000 in one region of the Mediterranean alone — that they contribute to overfishing. They can also trap and harm other marine animals, such as whales, turtles, and dolphins, per the BBC.
Then there's the plastic problem. The materials these FADs are made of will pollute the sea for generations to come and fuel the microplastics crisis that is affecting human health.
These impacts all damage the balance of ocean ecosystems, which, at the end of the day, drives up the cost of seafood and fish products for consumers.
"[FADs] modify the seabed environment and affect all the species living there," Teresa Romeo, director of the Sicily Marine Centre in Naples, Italy, told the BBC.
Experts, including Romeo, note that creating inexpensive FADs that are non-toxic and biodegradable could be one key to solving the issue.
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Definitely 👍 In the meantime, Sea Shepherd's international crew has put in the hours to remove hundreds of FADs from the sea one at a time during their missions. Still, it is a slow process. One mile of FAD line can take nearly an hour to extract.
The group's first-of-its-kind mapping project will aid future cleanup efforts. Its partnership with iMilani, a plastic upcycling company that reuses Sea Shepherd's hauls, is another piece of the puzzle.
"We are witnessing the biggest marine environmental disaster ever," Andrea Morello, president of Sea Shepherd Italy, told the BBC. "The sea is like a minefield full of FAD lines in every direction."
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