SEARCULAR concludes with four validated solutions to advance circular fishing gear in Europe

• The European SEARCULAR consortium, coordinated by AZTI and comprising 13 organisations —research and technology centres, fishing gear manufacturers, recyclers and material recovery companies, and specialist organisations—, has worked for three years alongside fishers and ports to reduce at source the marine litter generated by fishing gear.
• The project has developed four solutions —recycled ropes, biodegradable ropes, biodegradable fish aggregating devices (FADs) and a smart port collection model, Blue Point— that demonstrate that circular fishing gear is technically feasible.
• Based on these results, SEARCULAR has published a series of reference documents with recommendations to advance towards circular fishing gear in Europe.

Around 26,000 tonnes of end-of-life fishing gear reach European ports each year. This is compounded by the impact of gear that is lost, abandoned or damaged at sea, one of the main sources of plastics and microplastics in the marine environment. To address this problem, the SEARCULAR consortium, coordinated by AZTI, has spent the last three years working with the fishing sector and the fishing gear manufacturing industry to reduce this pollution at source, both at sea and in ports. The results confirm that circularity criteria can be incorporated from the design stage of fishing gear and that these materials can be given a second life through more efficient collection, reuse and recycling models.

Four solutions to rethink fishing gear design

SEARCULAR, an initiative funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme and co-funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Basque Government as part of its blue strategy, has developed four complementary solutions that together cover the entire life cycle of fishing gear.

Three of them focus on alternative materials designed from the outset to make end-of-life management easier:

• Protective ropes or dolly ropes for trawlers, made from recycled purse-seine nets. They are more durable than conventional ropes, reducing both fibre shedding (microplastics and macroplastics) at sea and the volume of nets discarded in port.
• The first biodegradable ropes for Danish seine (demersal seine) developed to date, three times more resistant to abrasion than conventional materials, reducing microplastic shedding during use.
• BIOFAD, biodegradable fish aggregating devices (FADs) made entirely from natural materials such as bamboo, wood and cotton, designed to minimise the environmental impact of these elements in tropical tuna purse-seine fisheries.

The fourth solution, Blue Point, addresses the final stage of the fishing gear life cycle. It is a smart model for collecting, sorting and recycling end-of-life gear and improving waste management in ports.

Policy recommendations to accelerate the transition

Drawing on the knowledge generated through these four solutions and direct collaboration with fishers and industry, SEARCULAR has published four reference documents to guide the transition towards more circular fishing gear in Europe:

• Challenges and opportunities for developing circular fishing gear, which reviews the project’s progress and the main barriers to adoption, and proposes steering regulation towards preventing marine litter at source.
• Biodegradable materials for fishing gear and equipment, focusing on how design and alternative materials can contribute to the objectives of the European Green Deal and the Zero Pollution Action Plan.
• Recycled materials for circular fishing gear, in which the consortium proposes certifying circular gear, setting minimum percentages of recycled material and installing smart port infrastructure. It also includes a proposal for standardised labelling and a Gear Lifecycle Factsheet (GLF), conceived as the basis for a future digital product passport for fishing gear.
• Waste management infrastructure: from vessel deck to port, which analyses how to strengthen port facilities and integrate Blue Points into existing waste management systems.

“Fishing gear circularity is no longer just an aspiration. The consortium has demonstrated that technically viable alternatives exist and have been tested under real-world conditions. The challenge now is for industry and regulation to move forward in a coordinated way so that these solutions can be adopted more widely,” explains Oihane C. Basurko, SEARCULAR coordinator and AZTI researcher specialising in marine litter and ocean conservation.

A transition that requires the whole sector

SEARCULAR has drawn up a roadmap aligned with the objectives of the European Green Deal and demonstrated that rethinking fishing gear design can tangibly reduce its contribution to marine plastic pollution. The next step will depend on the joint involvement of fishers, gear manufacturers, ports, waste managers and policy-makers to move these solutions from pilot testing to wider adoption across the European fishing sector.

Results

The full package of SEARCULAR policy recommendations and project results are available at searcular.eu/resources.