Project FishNoWaste

Marine Litter (ML) is recognized as a global issue threatening coastal and marine ecosystems around the world. Fishing activities represent an important source of marine litter releasing various forms of debris, directly or indirectly, into the sea but can also be an important resource for reducing litter both through their ordinary activities and specifically targeted initiatives such as ‘Fishing for Litter’. The Adriatic Sea, due to its partially enclosed nature, the socio-economic importance of its fisheries, and the abundance of fishing ports along its coasts, is particularly vulnerable to ML, of which it is considered a hotspot. Here a coordinated, synergistic strategy covering both Adriatic coasts and involving the fishery sector, aiming to reduce the generation and release of waste and facilitate litter collection and disposal would be crucial to preserve the marine environment and its biodiversity under siege by multiple local human pressures and climate change.

The FishNoWaste project aims at enhancing the protocols for waste reduction (with a special focus on plastic), collection and management, including reuse and recycling, in Adriatic fishing ports through the development and implementation of good practices and innovative techniques and materials, with the involvement of key fishery related stakeholders including fishers themselves. The project will connect research institutions, fisher associations, fish market and port authorities, municipalities and scientific communication NGOs from Italy and Croatia with the specific aims of comprehensively monitoring the debris caught during fishing activities and generated in fishing ports, replacing plastics in fishing vessels and ports with eco-compatible and reusable materials, implementing a novel, more circular waste management model, performing a widespread communication and dissemination campaign on the importance of a correct waste management, and providing strategic management and policy advice on these issues. The network of partners and stakeholders of this project will represent the foundation for an effective basin-wide strategy to reduce marine litter.

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