{"id":450365,"date":"2026-04-15T11:49:04","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T09:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/?p=450365"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:27:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T11:27:03","slug":"nettag-delivers-three-years-of-concrete-action-against-ghost-fishing-gear-and-marine-litter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/15\/nettag-delivers-three-years-of-concrete-action-against-ghost-fishing-gear-and-marine-litter\/","title":{"rendered":"NETTAG+ delivers three years of concrete action against ghost fishing gear and marine litter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"elementToProof\">Rome \u2013 After 3 years of intense activities across Mediterranean and Atlantic fishing countries, the <strong>EU NETTAG+ project has reached its conclusion<\/strong>. Funded by the <strong>European Union<\/strong>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nettagplus.eu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the project<\/a> set out to prevent, <strong>reduce and mitigate the environmental impacts of abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear and related marine litter<\/strong>, working in close cooperation with fishers, researchers, authorities and industry.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">Throughout its lifetime, NETTAG+ tested and\u00a0demonstrated\u00a0a wide range of technical, operational and governance solutions, placing fishers at the\u00a0centre\u00a0of the response to marine litter. By combining innovative technologies, participatory approaches and\u00a0policy dialogue, <strong>the project has contributed to repositioning fishers as key actors in tackling marine litter and protecting our ocean<\/strong>.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe title=\"Preventing Ghost Gear: Croatian Fishers Put NETTAG+ Tech to the Test\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/897uyAYF5jI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">The results of this\u00a0work are\u00a0showcased\u00a0during the NETTAG+ final event, on 14 and 15 April 2026 in Vila do Conde and\u00a0P\u00f3voa\u00a0de Varzim, Portugal,\u00a0organized\u00a0by the\u00a0project coordinator, the\u00a0Interdisciplinary Centre for Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR), with the Association for Greater Safety of Seafarers (APMSHM).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">Over two days, the final event\u00a0brings together researchers, fisheries representatives, policy\u2011makers, maritime authorities, NGOs,\u00a0businesses\u00a0and members of the public to reflect on the project\u2019s outcomes and explore how NETTAG+ solutions can be replicated beyond the project\u2019s lifetime.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">The first day, hosted at the <strong>Vila do Conde Municipal Auditorium<\/strong>, showcased scientific results and knowledge exchange. Researchers from NETTAG+ and other European initiatives discussed the scale and complexity of marine litter linked to fisheries, as well as strategies to prevent and reduce it at source.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">On the second day, in <strong>P\u00f3voa de Varzim<\/strong>, participants will experience hands\u2011on demonstrations of the tools and approaches developed by NETTAG+, featuring\u00a0onshore presentations of technologies, educational tools, virtual reality experiences and policy recommendations, as well as offshore demonstrations aboard a fishing vessel, where acoustic tagging systems and robotic technologies for locating and recovering lost fishing gear\u00a0were\u00a0tested\u00a0under\u00a0real working conditions.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">Endorsed by the UN Ocean Decade,\u00a0the event highlights\u00a0the importance of moving from pilots to implementation, and from isolated solutions to coordinated action at local,\u00a0national\u00a0and European levels.<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">A core message\u00a0emerging\u00a0from NETTAG+ is that tackling marine litter associated with fishing activities requires collaboration across sectors, with the direct and active involvement of fishers.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\">As underlined by <strong>Sandra Ramos<\/strong>, NETTAG+ coordinator and researcher at CIIMAR:\u00a0\u201cMarine litter is a complex challenge that cannot be solved by one sector alone. NETTAG+ has shown that engaging fishers as partners \u2013 not as part of the problem, but as part of the solution \u2013 is essential to developing effective,\u00a0realistic\u00a0and scalable responses.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"elementToProof\"><strong>In Croatia and Italy, WWF helped translate NETTAG+<\/strong> innovation into real\u2011world action, working closely with fishers, ports and local communities to test solutions on the ground. <strong>Stefania\u00a0Campogianni<\/strong>, WWF\u2019s Regional Manager on plastic pollution explained that \u201cthrough NETTAG+, we co\u2011developed technological and policy solutions to tackle marine litter and prevent ghost gear. The key challenge now is to build on this knowledge and innovation by supporting uptake, strengthening\u00a0policies\u00a0and promoting more sustainable fishing practices.\u201d<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Funded by the European Union, the project set out to prevent, reduce and mitigate the environmental impacts of abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear and related marine litter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":496,"featured_media":450376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25706,25712],"tags":[33767,33495],"class_list":["post-450365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-green-economy-en","category-general-news","tag-nettag","tag-wwf"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/496"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450365"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450403,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450365\/revisions\/450403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}