We will develop and implement low cost, miniature and environmentally-friendly acoustic tags (transponders) for location of the fishing assets as well as the recovery system for this fishing gear.
Acoustic tags will be able to uniquely identify an item of fishing gear, precisely determine its position and facilitate its recovery. The devices will be sufficiently small, cheap and robust to enable multiple tags to be easily used on large nets or to be attached to small gear traps, e.g. used for crustacean/octopus fishing. The localization system to be developed will be easily deployed/operated from fishing vessels and by non-expert operators. Autonomous Underwater Vehicle/Remotely Operated Vehicle (AUV/ROV) will be adapted to assist in the recovery of the gear.

We will consult fishers to identify and assess:

• which, when, how and under what conditions fishing gears are lost, and measures taken to prevent their loss;
• what type, and if possible, how much garbage is produced by fishers during a normal fishing trip;
• how does on-board garbage interferes with the fishing activity, and what is the economic loss due to lost gears and the time spent trying to recover lost gears;
• fishers perception about marine litter, garbage produced on-board, and the problems it causes to fishing operations (time wasted, damage to gear, etc.).

Information will be collected using interviews and deliberative and participatory workshops, enabling co-production of knowledge and ensuring integration of fishers’ knowledge and needs into preventing marine litter cause by lost gear and garbage produced on-board of fishing vessels.

We will investigate the harmfulness of lost fishing gear as a new pollutant. The environmental impacts will be assessed by in situ monitoring of hotspots for lost gears, following an ecosystem based approach. In addition, a series of laboratory manipulative experiments will be implemented to explore the potential of the lost gear for the releasing of materials (e.g. microplastics) and/or for the adsorption of chemical and biological pollutants, and how the recovery of lost gears can reduce this environmental impact

We will organize educational actions to raise awareness of professional fishers about the marine litter problematic, fostering on-board good practices of waste management.
Actions will include educational seminars and workshops, made by fishers to fishers, focusing on the marine litter problematic and the urgent need for a behavioural change on-board.
Actions will end with the organization of a special event Clean Ocean Day, a synchronized campaign where fishers from NW Portugal and Galicia will collect all the debris resulting from a standard fishing day, including debris caught by fishing gears and also operational waste produced on-board. All collected litter will be further analysed to have a snapshot of the quantity and type of litter of the NW Iberian Peninsula coast.

We will test and validate in the field the developed technology for detection and recovery of lost fishing gears.
Actions will include:

• laboratory tests and validation of the acoustic tags and locating receiver equipment;
• laboratory tests of the retrieving vehicle;
• field tests of the location system and self-guided vehicle;
• final demonstration and validation.

Field tests and final demonstration will have a major participation of the fishing community, involving APMSHM (NW Portugal) and ARVI (Spain).

We will estimate the economic costs of marine litter, and assess the viability of implementation of the NetTag solutions.
A multicriteria cost-benefit analysis of the implementation of new acoustic technological devices to track fishing gears will be develop. The viability for the implementation of the new acoustic technological devices by legal authorities and fishing businesses will be also evaluate.