Ghost net fisherman saves marine life in Hong Kong... How?

Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- Hong Kong has a rich maritime history dating back hundreds of years, and the city's international port was built by the fishing communities dotting its coastal shores. However, beneath the surface of its waters lurks a danger that threatens marine life.

Abandoned or lost, fishing nets or ghost fishing gear float in the ocean, trapping and killing marine life, impeding the movement of boats, and threatening the lives of divers.

Facing this issue, one of the divers, Harry Chan, who called himself a "ghost net fisherman", decided to take matters into his own hands. The 68-year-old retired businessman has spent the past decade salvaging abandoned fishing nets from the ocean. He considers it his mission to clean up the waters around Hong Kong and its coastline.

In this regard, Chan told CNN, "If we do not take care of the environment and the ocean, we will have no alternative."

What is ghost fishing gear?

Ghost gear ends up in the ocean by accident, such as being swept away by hurricanes, ripped off rocks, or deliberately discarded to hide evidence of illegal fishing, often.

This problem is not unique to Hong Kong. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 640,000 metric tons of stealth equipment is dumped into the world's waters annually, the equivalent of more than 50,000 double-decker buses. The non-profit Ocean Conservancy considers that estimate to be conservative.

A 2018 study on the North Pacific garbage vortex, which is a collection of garbage spread in the water over an area of ​​1.6 million square kilometers, which is more than twice the size of the US state of Texas, revealed that more than half of all plastic mass It consisted of fishing nets, ropes, and strings.

Lawrence McCook, director of oceans at the World Wide Fund for Nature in Hong Kong, said ghost nets or gear threaten both marine life and people.

"It's called stealth equipment because it stays alive," McCook explained. It is estimated that 136,000 dolphins, seals, turtles, and even whales are killed annually by these equipment, along with countless fish and other small marine life.

Ghost equipment contributes to a 30% decline in fish stocks in some locations, which may affect food supplies and profits for the fishing industry, as well as projects to restore and preserve fish stocks.

Looking for ghost webs

From the moment Chan locates a web, it can take between three and eight hours to remove it. Although it is dangerous and hard work, Chan, who has been diving since 1987, during which he has dived more than 3,000 times, is very passionate about this task, and the danger of death that he may face will not deter him from his pursuit of his goal.

"I almost got killed twice after I got caught in the net," Chan said, adding, "But fortunately, my comrades managed to free me."

Over the years, Chan has built a small team of volunteers, who take turns helping him clean up Hong Kong's waters. Equipped with scuba gear, they set out on a boat, in search of stray ghost nets.

And when they find one of these nets, which may be difficult to remove due to poor water visibility in Hong Kong, they use a knife or scissors to free the marine life trapped in it, or to break the nets stuck between rocks, on coral, or on the sea floor.

They use a small flotation device to lift them to the surface of the water based on the size and weight of the net and how deep it is. Usually, Chan carries out this task twice a month, and also organizes clean-ups for beaches and coastlines.

Over the years, Chan and his team of volunteers have amassed more than 80 metric tons of stealth gear by hand, and he is determined to continue hunting this "silent killer".

"Being a diver, I can do a lot to protect and save the ocean," he said.

Stealth Equipment Detective

While "local heroes" like Chan do an admirable job collecting ghost nets, the potential risks more experienced divers may encounter cannot be underestimated, according to McCook. From the World Wide Fund for Nature in Hong Kong.

"The fishing net is designed to catch things underwater, and it does its job well," he explained, adding: "It's very easy to get caught in the net, and after all we are underwater, where the air supply is limited."

For this reason, the Fund has developed the "Ghost Equipment Detective" program.

The Citizen Scientist initiative invites scuba divers and boaters to record the location of stealth equipment on a waterproof board using a portable GPS device and record coordinates. This information is reported via an app once they are back on land.

Then the Hong Kong Government's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation uses this data to safely collect nets with the help of a team of professional divers.

Since the launch of the program in 2019, the WWF in Hong Kong has announced the removal of 244 pieces of stealth equipment, based on 225 reports, weighing about 272 kilograms.

"The value of collecting data is not just about removing it, but also allowing the government, and us, to understand the scale and nature of the problem, which is critical to conceptualizing solutions," McCook said.

Signals and Tracking

While clearing the waters of ghost nets is essential, preventing fishing gear from ending up in the ocean is key.

Incentives to fisheries and fishermen to keep their nets in good condition, and to recycle them properly, could help "prevent the intentional or accidental loss of these nets," McCook said.

Ghost nets have often been "closely associated with illegal fishing," he said, so governments should ensure that marine police and conservation agencies have "the resources and means to effectively and responsibly enforce the law."

Tracking technology on fishing gear can also help, through the use of electronic tags, to identify, for example, low-cost radio frequency (RFID) or encrypted wire tags to help marine police scan equipment to confirm that it comes from a legal fishery.

Chan hopes that improving government policies will remove the "root cause" for future generations. Although the scale of the problem may be enormous at times, it will continue to sink as long as there are ghost nets in the ocean.