TakePart Post - Ocean Phrase of the Day: Ghost Fishing

April 5, 2010
Posted by John Bowermaster

It’s accepted today that fishing—particularly commercial fishing—doesn’t involve much luck. Big industrial boats know where the fish are (aided by sonar, GPS, even the occasional aerial tracking plane) and how to catch them. That combination is a big reason the ocean is so badly overfished; fisherman know how to take and there are very few limits on how much. There’s one kind of fishing though that does involve luck—bad luck—particularly for fish. It’s known as ghost fishing, the term used for lost or abandoned fishing gear that continues to fish long after it’s slipped the hands of its owner or escaped its boat. According to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 640,000 tons of discarded fishing gear is added to the ocean every year, roughly 10 percent of the total of marine debris...

http://www.takepart.com/news/2010/04/05/ocean-phrase-of-the-day-ghost-fishing