A review of ghost fishing: scientific approaches to evaluation and solutions

Research on ghost fishing became active in the late 1980s. Ghost fishing has been confirmed for traps, gillnets, trammel-nets and small seine nets. Some lost traps are functional for a long period of time, even in shallow waters. Consequences for gillnets after loss depend on seabed conditions. The ghost fishing function of gillnets remaining on flat seabeds declines rapidly with decreasing heights and increasing visibility. Gillnets left tangled around an artificial reef, for example, three-dimensionally maintain the initial magnitude of ghost fishing for a long period of time, even after badly fouled. There are increasing numbers of researches working on the total number of mortality per gear after gear loss for gillnets and trammel-nets. It has become also possible to estimate the total number of mortality for a unit period of time in a certain fishing sector. This paper reviews research which has provided evidence and quantitative data on ghost fishing, and proposes five items important for future studies on ghost fishing.