Visakhapatnam: Ghost fishing is an undersea activity that is perplexing marine scientists as it goes on automatically without human intervention due to the presence of torn fish nets, put either deliberately or accidentally cast into the sea. It leads to a huge loss of resources, including killing commercially important fish and other endangered marine species.The discarded nets trap the fish and other marine creatures and unless retrieved from the sea cause a significant loss of marine resources . Ghost fishing may be caused from all kinds of nets.B. Madhusudana Rao, a principal scientist at the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (ICAR-CIFT), Visakhapatnam said,“The strong nylon nets used in fishing are mostly made of polyethylene or polypropylene instead of the traditional jute and rope, which tear easily and are not as durable as the ones made from nylon.”“Sometimes, due to strong waves and wind action or the rocks underneath, the nets get detached from the boats from where they are cast. Shipwrecks also pull off portions of fishing nets. At times, gill nets are kept floating using floaters. If they accidentally tear off, fish keep getting caught in the nets causing wastage of marine life and resources,” Rao added.According to R Raghu Prakash, scientist-in-charge, Visakhapatnam Research Centre of CIFT, a study has been conducted by scientist Sally Thomas from CIFT-Kochi, regarding gear damage or gill nets to find the estimated loss due to ghost fishing along the Kerala coast.Scientist say that in order to prevent ghost fishing, a potential area of research is evolving for the designing of recyclable and biodegradable nets or those made from some plant based fibres, which are strong, durable and get dissolved by bacteria in water, in case portions of the net enter the sea.

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