Festival della Scienza – Exhibition ‘Sea Ghosts’

An exihibition of Sea Ghost’s photos.

An indelible imprint left by man in the marine environment is represented by the phenomenon of professional or amateur fishing equipment that year after year
are lost or abandoned at sea. Ghost gear is estimated to make up at least 10% of total marine litter. This roughly translates to around 650 thousand tons of fishing gear abandoned in the ocean every year. This has a strong impact on the entire marine ecosystem results in unproductive and continuous capture and killing of marine fauna, release of microplastics in the environment, desertification of the seabed as a consequence of the covering of the sessile organisms. Cases emblematic:

• -in the upper Gulf of California, in Mexico, the nets abandoned after illegal fishing at the Totoaba (Totoaba macdonaldi) have contributed to bringing the vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus) to the brink of extinction.
• The sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) of Ponza Documentation. Protection projects,collection and recycling of abandoned material and possible solutions to the problem.