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Purpose and goal

The Code of Conduct from Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of UN states that the fishing gear should be marked in accordance with national legislation so that the owner of the gear is identified. However, abandoned, lost fishing gear is often impossible to identify as to fishery of origin. During UDI-1 ‘Hitta Mig’ project we looked into i) requirements and existing technologies for underwater identification and localization methods for a trackable ID tag; ii) environmental benefits for a circular fishing gear system; and iii) regulations and legislative issues.

Expected results and effects

The main conclusions from UDI-1 were that the following activities are essential for an effective minimization of DFG problems: 1) to demonstrate the proof-of-concept of a trackable ID tag for lobsterpots; 2) look into sustainability (material reutilization and recycling within value chain; social aspects) and environment, and 3) circular economy (producers responsibility, business models). These topics will be focus for UDI-2 proposal as relevant topics to fishing sector authorities, commercial/leisure fishing companies for improving their management of marine resources.

Planned approach and implementation

Two workshops were organized at Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management. The goal was to increase the understanding of the needs, requirements and the interest of existing and new key partners for the ‘Hitta Mig’ project in order to get a more uniform and common view of the vision and objectives for UDI-2 project. Issues and challenges concerning technologies (marking, localization, recycling), sustainability aspects (social, environmental), circular economy, legislations and business were discussed and based on these we defined the focus for UDI-2/3.