The European OCEANETS project has started initial research to achieve the twofold objective of preventing the loss and abandonment of fishing nets and facilitating their recovery for subsequent reuse in the form of high value-added textile products.
The project has used GPS tracking to help fishermen identify obstacles that trap fishing gear, as well as areas where they have lost nets, so that they can be collected.
The project’s work on land has also started with the first tests to develop innovative mechanical and chemical recycling methods to find new uses for recovered fishing nets at the end of their life cycle.
The OCEANETS project is funding by the EU and led by AIMPLAS, an in the ten months since the project being, the Port of Vigo Shipowners’ Cooperative has contacted several agents in the fishing gear value chain to gain first-hand information of the lifecycle of fishing nets, as well as the challenges posed by their loss at sea and recycling at the end of their life cycle.
Initial chemical recycling tests are being performed on polyamide nets to obtain fibres that can be used to produce sportswear, and for other kinds of fishing nets, AIMPLAS is doing research on mechanical recycling and compounding processes to improve the properties of the material so that it can be used in different value-added applications.