End of life fishing industry waste: challenges and opportunities for a closed loop system; 16th April 2020, webinar
Exeter Univeristy will be hosting a webinar on 'Plastics and Fishing - End of life fishing industry waste, challenges and opportunities for a closed loop system,' on Thursday 16th April 2pm – 3pm (GMT).
This webinar is co-hosted by University of Exeter and the Environment Agency with the aim of facilitating collaboration on circular economy opportunities for fishing industry waste, and informing our understanding of plastics stocks and flows, challenges, and risks in the South West region.
Speakers include Dr Maru Cano Correa, Jonathan Harvey (Environment Agency), Adam Parnell, Brixham Harbour Master (Head of Torbay Harbour Authority) & Dr Jasper Graham-Jones (University of Plymouth).
Fishermen across the South West of England actively collect marine litter as a public good; disposing of it through the fishing for litter scheme, and many are working to recycle end of life fishing equipment. Unfortunately, there are a number of barriers to a circular economy for this industry, which poses a challenge to universal recycling of equipment and safe disposal. Consequently, just 1.5% of worn out fishing gear is recycled in the European Union.
Consequently, Abandoned, Lost, Derelict Fishing Gear (ALDFG) causes a number of economic disruptions; from depleting fish stocks to navigation interference. Entanglement has now been reported for 344 species, to the detriment of our wildlife and species of conservation concern.
This webinar will update attendees of the work going on across the South West region and beyond on tackling ALDFG, and will introduce a survey for both fleet managers and harbour masters to collate their ideas and concerns. We hope that this will facilitate collaboration towards solutions, and the findings from this work will inform University of Exeter's fishing plastic waste calculator development as a part of the ongoing work of the ExeMPLaR (University of Exeter Multidisciplinary Plastics Research Hub) research project.
Objectives/Outputs:
* Bring people together: to link stakeholders including; Fishing industry, Environment Agency, DEFRA, Local Authorities, harbour & port authorities, waste management service, marine conservation sector, NGO's, and recyclers
* Seek contributions and discuss what's happening with plastics in the fishing industry in the SW region
* Explore the key issues to build a common understanding of circular economy barriers, challenges & opportunities
* To introduce a fishing gear calculator. A project for the estimation of fishing gear flows and stocks in the South West
* Build on collaborative approaches and launch two questionnaires which will help to adjust University Exeter's fishing gear calculator.
Further details about the ExeMPLaR research project can be found on the ExeMPLaR ePlatform link:
https://exemplarnet.org.uk/
Webinar Access using this link:
https://zoom.us/j/4232440533
Dr Jasper Graham-Jones from the University of Plymouth will be speaking at the webinar about the INdiGO project of which Marine South East is a partner. (INnovative fishing Gear for Ocean).
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