There’s a smaller pot of money this time around for the retrieval of ghost gear from Canadian waters.
As part of the Ghost Gear Program, established in 2019 by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), between 2020 and 2025 the feds provided more than $58.4M of ghost gear funding to 144 projects; 134 within Canada and 10 internationally, to assist Indigenous groups, fish harvesters, the aquaculture industry, non-government organizations and communities in taking concrete action in the fight against ghost gear, removing 2,546 tonnes of abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear from Canada’s waters.
“As announced in Canada’s Strategy to Protect Nature (on March 31), $15 million over three years will fund the modernization of the location, retrieval and disposal of ghost gear from Canadian waters. Details on funding for gear retrieval projects will be announced in due course,” said Axel Rioux, Fisheries and Oceans Canada media relations.
Angela Riley, founder of Scotian Shores, a shoreline clean-up organization in Nova Scotia, said she is “really skeptical” about the new ghost gear fund.
“Fifteen million over three years, $5 million a year spread across Canada, two coasts, $2.5 million each a year. We had a group come into Nova Scotia and eat up $5 million in one year (previous ghost gear funding). $15 million can get eaten up fairly quickly. When you look at recycling initiatives, you’re looking at massive amounts of money. When you look at water retrieval, you’re looking at quite a bit of money. Shoreline clean-up, my world, in my opinion in the most affordable and feasible because you get so many volunteers and you can use untrained people,” said Riley.
The previous ghost gear fund program “was huge for us,” said Riley. “We make a little bit of funding go a long way.”
Scotian Shores was successful in getting ghost gear funding for two years; $75,000 the first year and $150,000 the second.
“That year we were able to contract out boats to take us to islands where the higher concentrations of ghost gear are,” said Riley. They collected 300,000 pounds of marine debris.
Since being formed in 2020, Scotian Shores has also been able to tap into the provincial Marine Debris Program, which has ended. Last year they were able to access $50,000 through DFO’s Oceans Management Contribution program which has ended as well. “That’s what we used to pay for dumpsters and gas to get us to our events and for PPE,” said Riley.
This year they have no provincial or federal funding programs to apply to for help and are basically self-funded, with a few sponsorships, which are great, but doesn’t get you very far when you’re paying for trucks, trailers, ATVs, boats and gas, said Riley.
“The places we like to go when we have funding is McNutt’s Island or Baccaro or Blanche or Seal Island, hopefully this summer, but it takes funding because you need boats and trucks and trailers to move this big heavy gear, lobster traps, big balls of rope. It’s not just bags of a little bit of plastic you can put on the side of the road. We need to bring lobster pot trailers to haul away 400 traps,” said Riley.
When it comes to the new ghost gear funding opportunities, Riley said she hopes “they are going to prioritize the community groups and the fishing groups, the ones that kept doing it because this is what they want to do, the groups that kept going. We’re going to continue no matter what. You can always do those little family friendly clean ups but for the more ’let’s clean up this gear that’s been building up for decades’, you really do need some funding for that.”
Since starting shoreline clean-up initiatives, Riley said, “more of the industry is coming out to help us, which I think is an improvement, but for the actual litter coming ashore, I can’t say it’s any better. What’s happening now, because the garbage is getting older and older, it’s breaking down into smaller pieces so now instead of a whole fish bin it’s in a thousand pieces. Same as Styrofoam.”
Scotian Shores has collected 1.8 million pounds of marine debris since 2020, including 44,000 pounds by mid-April this year and 231,000 lobster bands.
Scotian Shores has declared 2026 as the year of the lobster bands. “We’re trying to bring awareness to the fact these lobster bands are not as biodegradable as some people think and that there a lot of processing facilities that are dumping them from their outfall pipe,” said Riley, noting the provincial Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture has been working on this issue.
Riley said there are lots of volunteers who help with shoreline clean-ups. “I’m sure over the years thousands of people have helped. We have a lot of solo pickers, a lot of groups that come out with us. Corporate events — a business will hire us to do all the logistics for the clean up and they get to show up and do a clean up and we take all the garbage away. It works really well because we know what to do,” she said.
“The other thing about the ghost gear is the barriers for fishers to responsibly be able to dispose of their gear. If they don’t have a way to drop it off like in Barrington at the C&D landfill, where they can take traps and rope for free, that to me is huge. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Let them take their gear to a disposal site for free. You’re going to have a lot less ending up on the shoreline. If you’re going to put barriers up, (some) will take the easy way out,” said Riley.
There are three phases to the Ghost Gear Program. Phase 1 (2019–2024) was the initiation of the Ghost Gear Program and delivery of the targeted ghost gear funding to increase capacity in addressing ghost gear. Phase 2 (2024–2027) is the transition from managing funded ghost gear activities to developing a prevention-focused strategy, guided by feedback and input from engagement and consultation sessions. Phase 3 (2027 onwards) will be the active management of Canadian fisheries utilizing the tools that are developed in Phase 2.
