NETTAG+ aims to provide a portfolio of three solutions to address the negative impacts of fishing gears on marine life and habitats. NETTAG+ will be based on synergistic activities between the fisheries industry, scientists and NGOs to develop three solutions to PREVENT, AVOID and MITIGATE:
PREVENT – Fishers as Guardians and Cleaners of the Ocean. Empowering the fisheries sector, to improve and/or adopt more environmental-friendly fishing methods, to prevent marine litter and abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gears (ALDFG), and increase responsible user behaviour. This solution will include awareness actions to promote best practices for waste management onboard and also at the fishing ports, and will target not only the litter derived from fisheries activities, but also all the litter passively retrieved by the gears (passively fished).
AVOID – Fishing Gears Location with Acoustic Tags. Upscaling and maturing the acoustic fishing gear localization system using a low-cost tagging system for fishing gear retrieval, maximising cost effectiveness, robustness and suitability for fishing operations.
MITIGATE – Detection and Removal of Abandoned, Lost or otherwise Discarded Fishing Gears (ALDFG) (Map, Track and Recover). This solution will develop robotic tools to improve the detection of ALDFG on a robotic platform.
NETTAG+ aims to upgrade and upscale the integrative preventive approach started in the previous NetTag project, and also replicate it in Mediterranean regions. The three solutions PREVENT, AVOID and MITIGATE will be tested, validated and demonstrated in real conditions in Atlantic and Mediterranean countries, namely: Portugal (PT), United Kingdom (UK), Spain (SP), Italy (IT), Croatia (HR) and Malta (MT).
