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.

The Pacific Northwest region of Washington State and British Columbia is an area of incredible biodiversity and, as a result, significant fishing activity, particularly for Dungeness crab and various salmon species. There has been significant work done in the region previously by several GGGI members, including the Northwest Straits Foundation (NWSF) and Natural Resources Consultants (NRC) in Washington State and the Emerald Sea Protection Society (ESPS) in British Columbia. Part of this work by NWSF and NRC includes the creation of the Puget Sound Crab Pot Prevention Plan and the Reporting, Response, and Retrieval (RRR) Program for newly lost nets, a program being conducted in coordination with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Led by the Government of Indonesia’s Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) in collaboration with the GGGI, the objective of the ALDFG 3R Pilot Project is to deliver pilot projects for the full ALDFG lifecycle across the “3Rs” —to reduce, retrieve, and recycle ALDFG—and to explore a circular economy blueprint that could be developed in Indonesia. In addition to generous funding from the Government of Netherlands, the activities are also being supported through funding from Bumble Bee Seafoods. The current phase of the project expands on the work that commenced in 2017 to assess the practical and economic feasibility of various gillnet gear marking options for small-scale and artisanal fisheries, prove gear marking could form part of a comprehensive fisheries management system to help reduce ALDFG and IUU, underpin and strengthen the provisional recommendations to the (then) draft UN FAO VGMFG, and scope the viability of a net recovery and/or recycling project.