Fishing Nets to Surfboards

Conservationists, entrepreneurs and fishers around the world are working together in the fight against “ghost gear”. Abandoned fishing gear catches and kills more than 100,000 whales, dolphins, seals and turtles every year. But now small businesses in fishing communities are removing abandoned fishing gear from the ocean and recycling these almost indestructible plastics into new products. These include surfboards in India, swimwear in the UK, volleyball nets in Brazil, and fabrics in Pakistan. Fishers have an incentive to clean up this marine debris as it fouls their boats and nets at sea and reduces their catch. The recycling and manufacturing also creates jobs in their communities. www.weforum.org