DeFishGear Press Kit
“The Adriatic coast and sea – litter free!”
DeFishGear-challanging voyage of seeing the same Sea from different corners. Andrej Kržan, Project coordinator
The project is co-funded by the European Union, Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
Derelict Fishing Gear management system in the Adriatic Region www.defishgear.net
Building Blocks of the DeFishGear Project:
2 project website: https://www.defishgear.net
Project title:
Derelict Fishing Gear Management System in the Adriatic Region
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/defishgear
You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_9waBDfrK0vz2ZkNdXrpA/feed
Key facts about the project: Lead partner organisation: National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Slovenia Project coordinator: Andrej Kržan
Project theme: Improving marine, coastal and delta rivers environment by joint management in the Adriatic region. Project duration: 1/11/2013 - 31/3/2016 Countries involved: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, and Slovenia Number of project partners: 16
andrej.krzan@ki.si
Project budget: 5,353,765 €
Project manager:
Funding instrument: IPA Adriatic Cross-border Cooperation Programme
Nataša Juvančič Natasa.Juvancic@ki.si
The project is co-funded by the European Union, Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
Derelict Fishing Gear management system in the Adriatic Region www.defishgear.net
DeFishGear in General
Bits of facts about marine litter
What is marine litter?
Marine litter is any manufactured or processed solid material discarded in the marine and coastal environment. Marine litter poses a major threat to marine ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea due to its environmental, economic, safety, health and cultural impacts.
Effects of Marine litter
It has a negative impact on vital economical sectors such as fisheries, aquaculture, navigation, energy and tourism. Knowledge vacuum about marine litter trends makes marine litter even more pervasive and persistent threat, which strives for effective and sustainable solutions. Š Jasna Šiljid
The project is co-funded by the European Union, Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
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Derelict Fishing Gear management system in the Adriatic Region www.defishgear.net
Project Overarching Goal The DeFishGear project aims to facilitate the efforts of policy makers and stakeholders in effectively dealing with the issue of marine litter in the Adriatic Macro Region, towards litter free coast and sea.
Main Expected Results Improved knowledge based on the occurrence, amounts, sources and impacts (including socio-economic impacts) of all types of marine litter including micro-plastics in the Adriatic; Harmonized marine litter monitoring activities in the Adriatic and enhanced collaboration as a building block for future actions; A strengthened and reinforced science-policy interface to support the integration of sound science into policy and decision making in effectively tackling marine litter; Joint, coordinated and/or complementary schemes to manage human activities generating litter in the Adriatic Sea and strengthened implementation of relevant policy frameworks (MSFD, ICZM, ECAP, MSP, etc.) at the regional level.
Project Dissemination Project dissemination will strongly rely on awareness raising and educational activities, which among other will include the clean-up campaigns, workshops, seminars, conferences, and summer school for the University students and schoolchildren. The aim of these activities is to deepen public understanding on the issue of marine litter and catalyze change in their perceptions and attitudes towards waste.
Target groups:
Stakeholders:
Policy makers, Fishermen, Research Institutions, Recycling industry, NGOs Local Community
Fishermen, Industries: aquaculture, tourism, and transportation, recycling industry; Authorities: local, regional, national and supranational; Research community, fishermen, and general public.
Through the implementation of the DeFishGear Project, marine litter in the Adriatic coastal waters will be reduced by involving fishermen as one of the key factors for marine litter cause and solution.
The project is co-funded by the European Union, Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
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Derelict Fishing Gear management system in the Adriatic Region www.defishgear.net
What DeFishGear project tackles is: Marine litter Marine MarineLitter LitterThreat Threat Marine litter is one of the major threats to marine ecosystems in the Mediterranean sea with environmental, economic, safety and health as well as cultural impacts; Marine litter is one of the major threats to marine ecosystems in the Marine litter related data environmental, are sporadic andeconomic, limited insafety terms and of time and as space Mediterranean sea with health wellwhen as itcultural comes impacts; to individual countries; Enforcement relevant policies is weakand mostly because of low awareness of the Marine litterofrelated data are sporadic limited in terms of time and space problem and poor coordination between different national and local administrations when it comes to individual countries; dealing with solid waste issues; Enforcement of relevant policies is weak mostly because of low awareness of the Only few countries have coordination policies relatedbetween specificallydifferent to marinenational litter! problem and poor and local administrations dealing with solid waste issues; © Thomais Only few countries have policies related specifically to marine litter! Vlachogianni
Microplastics Microplastics Threat The Adriatic Sea is a semi-enclosed basin with slow currents and long water retention time, which makes it very vulnerable to persistent pollution related to marine litter, most of which is composed of plastic materials. Microplastic (plastic particles in size < 5 mm) and Nanoplastic (< 0,3mm) can damage fish’s digestion tract and enhance bioaccumulation of pollutants (organic and inorganic) adsorbed to the particles, and consequently affect human health when edible species are contaminated. © Thomais Vlachogianni
Derelict fishing gear Derelict Fishing Gear Threat Lost fishing gear may continue to fish for years (estimated time for plastic fishing net breakdown is cca. 600 years), a process referred to as »ghost« fishing; © R. Dragaševid
The project is co-funded by the European Union, Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
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Derelict Fishing Gear management system in the Adriatic Region www.defishgear.net
Actions to tackle Marine Litter/Microplastics/Derelict Fishing Gear
Flagship objective of the project activities: Fine-tuned niche of targeted actions to tackle marine litter/microplastics/derelict fishing gear developed and navigated by the eminent experts involved in the DeFishGear project are all streaming to one unique target, i.e. achievement of the Good Environmental Status of the Adriatic Sea and its coastline.
Actions to tackle Marine Litter Defining of a joint monitoring and assessment approach for marine litter, through participatory process; Carrying out surveys on beaches, the water surface and the seafloor to enhance knowledge on amounts, composition and potential impacts of marine litter; Establishing a network of experts on marine litter; Building capacities to monitor marine litter in a harmonized way through reinforced exchange of experiences, techniques, and know-how; Analyzing the implications of marine litter on peole, their property and livelihoods; Setting up a database to make marine litter data accessible to all stakeholders; Developing reccomandations and policy options based on the project findings and accumulated knowledge to meet regional and national objectives regarding marine litter (MSFD, RAP ML, EcAp, etc.)
The project is co-funded by the European Union, Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
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Derelict Fishing Gear management system in the Adriatic Region www.defishgear.net
Actions to tackle Microplastics Development of the harmonized methodology for monitoring and assessment of microplastics; Provision of the necessary equipment and skills for monitoring to all colaborating partners; Carrying out research activities to improve the understanding of the quantities, types and sources of microplastics in the Adriatic Sea, as well as their presence in marine biota; Undertaking studies to enhance knowledge on persistant organic polutants adsorbed on microplastics; © IWRS Slovenia
Actions to tackle Derelict Fishing gear „Fishing for litter“ initiatives undertaken by fishermen while performing their daily fishing activities, not only leading to removal of marine litter, but also raising awareness on the issue within the fishing sector and wider public; Targeted recovery of „Ghost nets“ from the sea with the direct involvment of fisherman and divers; Establishing derelict fishing gear management schemes to collect and recycle lost or abandoned fishing nets and other gear; Awareness raising activities for the fisherman; © Ante Žuljevid
The project is co-funded by the European Union, Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance
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Derelict Fishing Gear management system in the Adriatic Region www.defishgear.net
Joint commitment in bridging the gap of reliable scientific marine litter data
The DeFishGear project directly addresses the need for accurate, coherent and comparable scientific data on marine litter in the Adriatic region by taking up the joint action on regional level which goes beyond the borders of this particular issue. Thus, DeFishGear project encompasses the broader picture, taking into account emerging microplastics pollution (threat to marine environment caused by plastic particles with a diameter smaller than 5 mm), and impact of the derelict fishing gear (lost and abandoned fishing nets), which continue to catch marine organisms, and impose severe threat to the marine species and habitats. Joint commitment in combating all the aforesaid ubiquitous environmental issues, enhanced with the sound scientific knowledge and harmonized monitoring, which goes hand in hand with the coordinated and multi-sectorial targeted actions of policy makers is the key path to the sustainable management and protection of both coastal and marine environment.
Š IOF Croatia
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Derelict Fishing Gear management system in the Adriatic Region www.defishgear.net
List of Project Partners and Contact Points Country
Albania
Partner's Communications Focal Point
Website
Jerina Kolitari
j.kolitari@gmail.com
http://www.ubt.edu .al/en
Arviola Begaj
arviolabegaj@gmail.com
Nermina Tipura Dervišid
nermina.tipuradervisic@heis.com.ba
http://www.heis.co m.ba/
Pero Tutman
tutman@izor.hr
http://www.izor.hr/ web/guest/home
Gorana Baničevid
gorana.banicevic@rera.hr
http://rera.hr/
Thomie Vlachogianni
vlachogianni@mioecsde.org
http://www.mioecsde.org/
Nadia Papadopoulou
nadiapap@hcmr.gr
http://www.hcmr.gr /en/
Tomaso Fortibuoni
tomaso.fortibuoni@ispra mbiente.it
http://www.ispram biente.gov.it/en
Giulio Pojana
jp@unive.it
http://www.unive.it /nqcontent.cfm?a_i d=10497
Flavia Binda
binda@mediterraneo.coo p
http://www.mediter raneo.coop/
Stefano Serra
sserra@arpa.emr.it
http://www.arpa.e mr.it/index.asp?idliv ello=90
Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC)
Giovanni Coppini
giovanni.coppini@cmcc.it
http://www.cmcc.it/
University of Montenegro, Institute of marine biology
Branka Pestorid
branka06@gmail.com
http://www.ibmk.or g/
University of Nova Gorica, The Laboratory for Environmental Research
Mladen Franko
mladen.franko@ung.si
http://www.ung.si/ en/
Mojca Trkaj
Mojca.Trkaj@ki.si
http://www.ki.si/
Uroš Robič
uros.robic@izvrs.si
http://www.izvrs.si/
Partner Agricultural University of Tirana, Laboratory of Fisheries and Aquaculture Regional Council of Lezha
B&H
Hydro-Engineering Institute of the Faculty of Civil Engineering Institute for Oceanography and Fisheries
Croatia
Greece
Public Institution RERA SD for coordination and development of Split Dalmatia County (RERA) Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture and Sustainable Development Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Institute of Oceanography Italian National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research Ca' Foscari University of Venice Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage
Italy
Mediterranean Consortium Regional Agency for Environmental Protection in the Emilia-Romagna Region
Montenegro
Slovenia
National Institute of Chemistry, Ljubljana, Laboratory for polymer chemistry and technology Institute for water of the Republic of Slovenia
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