Canadian project recognized as a winner of this year’s Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions Award

21/03/2022

Alongside Ocean Conservancy’s Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) and the Joanna Toole Foundation, we are so proud to announce the winners of the third annual Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions Award. The winners are the Coastal Restoration Society in Canada and the Myanmar Ocean Project.

The Coastal Restoration Society project seeks to remove debris and restore critical habitats for keystone species.

The Coastal Restoration Society (CRS) is a nonprofit based in British Columbia, specializing in habitat restoration within traditional First Nation territories in support of Indigenous stewardship values. The organization works on a wide variety of marine issues, including ghost gear removal.

CRS, which has been a GGGI member since 2020, works with maritime professionals, environmental scientists, and First Nations stewards, for all projects, including shoreline cleanups, derelict vessels removals, and aquaculture remediation, in an effort to bring key stakeholders to the table.

Partnering with Maaqutusiis Hahoulthee Stewardship Society (MHSS) Ahousaht and British Columbia Parks, CRS will use their Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions Award to fund and conduct ghost gear retrievals within Ahousaht First Nation unceded territory in Clayoquot Sound. Focusing on mitigation and restoration, they will identify areas with high levels of ALDFG, remove at least 90% of gear from those targeted areas in the span of four days, and work with local recycling and waste facilities to recycle, creatively upcycle, or responsibly dispose of the debris. The CRS project seeks to remove debris and restore critical habitats for keystone species.

Their 'First Nations First' policy ensures that meaningful employment, contract, skill development and training opportunities are provided to local Indigenous peoples first. This removal project in Clayoquot Sound will offer employment opportunities for local members of the Ahousaht Nation who have been impacted by COVID-19, providing long-lasting skills and training for members of the community while restoring culturally and environmentally significant areas.

The Myanmar Ocean Project is a nonprofit working to raise awareness of ocean conservation in Myanmar and support solutions to the problem of ghost gear across the country. The organization, which has been a GGGI member since 2019, conducts surveys and cleanup expeditions across the Myeik Archipelago, one of the most untouched island groups in the world that has still been impacted by ghost fishing gear.

Through the Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions award, the Myanmar Ocean Project will interview fishers in the region to better understand local gear loss and use this data to identify ghost gear hotspots and create education materials for fishers and the public.

Remembering Joanna (Jo) Toole

On March 10, 2019, the world’s animals lost one of their most passionate advocates. The Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions Award was established in that year to honour GGGI co-founder, United Nations worker, and former World Animal Protection campaigner, Joanna Toole, whose life was tragically taken in the Ethiopian airlines crash.

The Joanna Toole Annual Ghost Gear Solutions Award is given to projects that submitted compelling strategies to tackle ghost gear. The combined value of the award is $40,000 USD which will be shared evenly between the winners.

About ghost gear

Ghost gear is the single deadliest form of marine debris to sea life, continuing to catch and kill long after it has been lost or discarded in the ocean. It is also a major threat to healthy fisheries and those that depend on them for food and livelihoods: an estimated 5-30% decline in some fish stocks is due to damage to important marine habitats that can be attributed to ALDFG. Gear loss occurs wherever fishing takes place, often due to rough weather, snags beneath the surface, and marine traffic accidentally running it over and cutting it loose.