More than one tonne of fishing gear to be recycled

An appeal to collect fishing gear at the end of its useable life saw more than one tonne of equipment dropped off at a dock.

East Suffolk Council held the four-day appeal at Hamilton Dock in Lowestoft to try to prevent redundant tackle from damaging the environment.

Members of the commercial fishing fleet dropped off a total of 1,194kg of items including nets, ropes, plastic pots and fish crates - the gill nets contained the equivalent of several kilometres of filament, line and rope.

Sally Noble, cabinet member for the environment, said it was "such a reassurance to see so much material recovered through this project" as discarded equipment could easily trap and entangle marine life.

The exercise was in collaboration with organisations belonging to the Eastern and Southern Plastics Coalition (ESPC), including the Eastern Inshore Fisheries Conservation Authority (IFCA), Keep Britain Tidy and energy firm RWE.

The aim of the exercise was to target abandoned fishing gear encountered and recovered by crews while out at sea.

The nets which were collected will now be sent off to be shred, the pellets will be used to make new products and ropes will be re-processed and turned into composite mixed plastic board.

Noble, a Green councillor, said there was reassurance this discarded fishing gear would not enter the marine environment, even by accident.

She said: "The commercial fishing community have really embraced this campaign and done their bit for a healthy marine environment by bringing along old fishing gear for free disposal.

"The great majority of our local fishing fleet take responsibility for managing their end-of-life gear, and I would like to thank everyone who took part."

Another appeal is planned for a different location on the Suffolk coastline for the autumn, with a date yet to be announced.

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