GGGI Signature Project - North American Net Collection Initiative (NANCI)
Project Background
Our signature North American Net Collection Initiative (NANCI) project is the first-ever transboundary initiative to prevent ghost gear in the coastal waters of the western United States, Mexico, and Canada. The GGGI, along with the Government of Mexico and several local non-profit organizations (including WWF Mexico, Pronatura Noroeste, Manta Caribbean Project, Wildcoast, and Bureo Inc.), and supported by funding from a diverse set of funders including the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Marine Debris Program, and the Builders Initiative, have come together to tackle ALDFG in a holistic way under the NANCI project banner.
Mexico is one of the world’s 17 “megadiverse” countries and one of the top 15 countries with the largest coastlines. As such, it is not surprising to learn that there is a significant amount of ALDFG in Mexico’s waters. Results from the first multi-institutional ALDFG removal program in the vaquita marina area, which launched in 2016, showed that more than 1,300 nets were removed from the Northern Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) as of 2020.
North America’s Pacific coast overall is home to several commercially important fish species and supports a diverse marine economy in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. In 2020, Mexico alone recorded 1.7 million metric tons in total fish catch, the third-highest amount in Latin America. This impacts the income for 300,000 people in Mexico who are directly involved in fishing, and it contributes to meeting UN FAO’s goal of a world without hunger and malnutrition. However, 42% of Mexico’s population lives in poverty, which makes addressing ghost gear pertinent to people’s livelihoods and food security. Eliminating ghost gear as the most harmful form of marine plastic debris requires a targeted and holistic approach across prevention, mitigation, and remediation.
The goals of the project include:
Developing knowledge of ghost gear in Mexico, including through fisher surveys and predictive models for ALDFG along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of Mexico;
Facilitating the development of an ALDFG action plan for Mexico based on the GGGI C-BPF and tailored to Mexico’s specific social, political, ecological, and economic context;
Promoting trilateral collaboration between the GGGI member governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, recognizing that ALDFG is a cross-cutting international issue;
Removing ghost gear from critical habitats in Mexico, supporting a healthy ecosystem, and building capacity and technical expertise among local NGOs to continue removal work in the future;
Transforming end-of-life fishing nets into high-value consumer goods via Bureo’s Net Positiva program, including establishing a net collection hub in Ensenada, Mexico.
Project Summary
(2023)
Thanks to the support of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), the Builders Initiative, and individual donors, the North American Net Collection Initiative Signature Project enables the GGGI to significantly strengthen efforts to address ALDFG in North America. NANCI is North America’s first transnational program to collect and transform end-of-life fishing nets into high-value consumer goods.
Working with our recycling partner Bureo, in 2023 we collected and recycled 111,834 kg of nets, primarily from Mexico’s northwest fishing companies. Nets were collected, stored, cut, washed, dried, and packed at the Ensenada, Mexico pre-processing hub. Then, the nets were shipped to a processing facility in Chile for recycling.
We held several training sessions in May and June with our local partner WILDCOAST, based on the first comprehensive ALDFG predictive model and map of ALDFG hotspots in Mexico’s waters (a joint effort in 2022 by the GGGI, NRC, the Manta Caribbean Project, and Pronatura Noroeste). During these sessions, fishers, and other stakeholders were trained on ALDFG prevention, including strategies for reducing gear loss and for safely removing gear from the marine environment. Two verification dives were conducted with local divers to groundtruth the predictive model for ALDFG in Mexico’s waters and to remove ALDFG from Huatulco National Park in Oaxaca, Mexico.
In August, representatives from the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. gathered virtually for the first Trilateral Government Roundtable on ALDFG entitled “Advancing Cooperation to Address Ghost Gear in North America.” The meeting drew 43 participants. From Canada, attendees represented Environment and Climate Change Canada and Fisheries and Oceans (DFO); and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). From the USA, attendees represented the U.S. State Department, NOAA, and the United States Trade Representative (USTR). From Mexico, attendees represented the Secretariat of the Navy, the National Commission of Aquaculture and Fishing (CONAPESCA), the Energy Secretariat (SENER), the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs (SRE), the National Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INAPESCA), the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection (PROFEPA), the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (CONANP), the Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT), the International Conservation Caucus Foundation, and the House of Senators from Mexico.
In November, with our local partner CEDO Intercultural, we lead 2 ALDFG workshops—one in Guaymas and one in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico—to discuss the implementation of the GGGI Best Practice Framework for the Management of Fishing Gear (C-BPF) for the Mexican Pacific hake, shrimp, and sardine fisheries. The meetings were a great success with more than 40 attendees, including fisher representatives and fisheries authorities. Another purpose of the meeting was to benefit from local fishers' knowledge of the location of ALDFG to guide future removals.
To better understand the legalities surrounding ALDFG in the region, the GGGI commissioned a multidisciplinary legal analysis of ALDFG in Mexico. The report identified strategic points of engagement with the Mexican government and other influential actors, and it identified effective partners to advance ALDFG action in Mexico. We also started a collaboration with the International Conservation Caucus Foundation to engage with the legislative and executive branches within the Mexican government to ensure decision-makers have accurate information about the scale and impact of ALDFG in Mexico’s waters.
Under the NANCI project umbrella and with GGGI funding support, the local Mexican NGO Hagamos Mas is tackling ALDFG. The focus areas for Hagamos Mas to combat ALDFG have been the Santa Rosalía-Mulegé corridor (Sea of Cortes) and the San Ignacio Lagoon (on the Pacific), both of which are located in Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. Hagamos Mas has conducted communication programs on marine conservation topics, and has coordinated the collection of ghost gear and end-of-life gear by fishers who were paid by the weight of the material returned. In addition, Hagemos Mas created an implemented an education program called “Educar para la vida” (Teach for life) to raise awareness about marine plastic debris and ALDFG, especially among children. In total, 647 elementary school students have been taught about the importance of marine conservation. In 2024, Hagamos Mas will expand the project and plans to include end-of-life fishing gear recycling activities for local communities.
Following the success of the first phase of the NANCI project, which began in 2021, the second phase was launched in June 2023, with NANCI partners gathering in Ensenada, Mexico, to share knowledge, lessons learned, challenges, and successes. Participants included CONANP, INAPESCA, Wildcoast, Pronatura, Hagamos Mas, WWF, NRC, CEDO Intercultural, CANAINPESCA, UAM, Pesca Azteca, and Baja Aquafarms, among others. The event included a visit to Bureo’s Ensenada hub, where end-of-life gear is preprocessed for recycling.
Project Summary
(2022)
Working with partners Pronatura Noroeste and Manta Caribbean Project, on-the-ground fishers surveys were conducted to perform a nationwide assessment to learn about the causes, frequency and impacts of ALDFG across all coastal states in Mexico. Working together with NRC, and using data collected from these fisher surveys, a predictive model has been developed to identify areas for potential gear loss in the Pacific and Atlantic waters of Mexico and to direct efforts where the potential for ALDFG presence is more likely.
Working together with the Inter-Ministerial Commission for the Sustainable Management of Seas and Coasts (CIMARES) and WWF Mexico, the GGGI drafted the first national strategy to prevent, mitigate and remediate ALDFG in Mexico. In September 2022, the GGGI co-hosted an ALDFG Action Plan Workshop in Mexico City. Twenty officials from the Mexican government participated, representing the more than 12 Mexican government agencies tasked with addressing this issue at the national level. By the end of 2022, the plan was preapproved by federal agencies, and it is now being prepared for final approval and publication in Mexico’s official gazette.
Working with Bureo, an EOL fishing gear collection hub to process nets from Mexico was established in Ensenada (in Baja California, Mexico, near the U.S. border), where EOL fishing nets are being collected, preprocessed, packed and sent to Bureo’s new facility in Oxnard, CA. Bureo is a specialist in creating solutions to EOL fishing nets. It works with local communities and fishing companies to collect EOL fishing nets to be recycled into Bureo’s NetPlus material, which can then be made into new products such as skateboards, sunglasses, and more. By the end of 2022, 14 tons of EOL gear from Mexico were sent to be recycled and another 55 tons were collected for processing.
The GGGI also led workshops to raise awareness about the scope and impact of ALDFG in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, and to increase the uptake of gear management best practices. During March 17-18, 2022, a workshop in Ensenada brought together 35 participants from at least 15 regions in Mexico, mainly from Mexico’s Pacific Northwest. Attendees were from a variety of sectors in Mexico, including NGOs, federal and state government (Navy, Inapesca, Conanp, Conapesca, Foreign Affairs and Sepesca), fishing industry (Canainpesca and fisher representatives), and the seafood private sector. During the March workshop, Bureo and Grupo Pinsa (a tuna and sardine production and commercialization company) signed an agreement to provide EOL nets to Bureo’s collection and recycling program. On July 27, 2022, another workshop, this time in Cancun, brought together 33 participants from the federal government (Navy, Semarnat-Profepa, Semarnat-Conanp, various natural protected area (NPA) directors, foreign affairs), state governments (Yucatan and Quintana Roo), NGOs (WWF, Parley for the Oceans, CoBi, Coral Reef Alliance, Grupo Tortuguero, Amigos de Isla Contoy and the Manta Caribbean Project), private sector (Bureo and Ola Mexico), academia (Metropolitan Autonomous University and the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (CINVESTAV)), and fishers from Campeche, Quintana Roo and Yucatan. Workshop topics across both workshops included best practices for gear management and interactive sessions focused on issues such as using the GGGI Ghost Gear Reporter app and solving hypothetical ghost gear case scenarios.
End-of-life net collection - photo credit: Edgar Lima.
C-BPF workshop Cancun, July 2022.
CBPF workshop Ensenada, March 2022.
ALDFG Action Plan Workshop, September 2022 - photo credit: Edgar Lima.
End-of-life fishing nets at Bureo’s facility in Ventura, California.
Project Summary
(2021)
In 2021, together with our local and international partners, we conducted research on the volume of end-of-life fishing gear in Mexico, reached key fisheries stakeholders willing to get involved in the net collection and recycling program, and developed a predictive model to identify areas with high ALDFG potential in the Pacific and the Atlantic waters of Mexico. The Government of Mexico and the GGGI co-hosted a virtual roundtable, which brought together 57 national and regional stakeholders to discuss collaborative action on ghost gear as part of Mexico’s commitment to the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy. The event aimed to raise awareness about the scope and impact of ghost gear in Mexico and to begin identifying gaps and opportunities for building capacity within the Mexican government to address ghost gear.
Together with UN FAO, we trained our NGO partners in Mexico on conducting fisher surveys to refine the predictive model and contribute to a global study on gear loss. We also worked with the Government of Mexico to identify its needs and lay the groundwork for a regional ALDFG action plan for Mexico to be further developed in 2022. We also fostered trilateral collaboration on ghost gear between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, hoping to expand future iterations of this project in these three countries as well as in the Latin American and Caribbean community.
Looking ahead to 2022, we continued to work with our project partners to operate a fishing gear collection hub in Ensenada and work with local fishers to collect and process end-of-life nets for recycling. We laid the groundwork to conduct fisher surveys in all coastal Mexican states in 2022 to evaluate ghost gear impact, organize fisheries stakeholder workshops to raise awareness and promote training on best practices for gear management and for gear loss prevention, detect and remove ghost gear from sensitive habitats; and track results of the mapping and removal work via the GGGI Ghost Gear Reporter App and global data portal. This activities help to support a healthy ecosystem, raise awareness about ghost gear with local fishers and communities, and provide capacity building and technical expertise for locals on the ground to continue these efforts.
End-of-life fishing nets ready for processing to be put into Bureo’s supply chain - photo credit: Ingrid Giskes.
Project partners
Partners
Bureo
Government of Mexico
Hagamos Más
Manta Caribbean Project
Natural Resources Consultants
ProNatura Noroeste
Wildcoast
WWF Mexico
Funders
Builders Initiative
Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC)
NOAA Marine Debris Program
