Postgraduate Industrial Placement: Searching for Ghost Nets with Myanmar Ocean Project

Postgraduate Industrial Placement: Searching for Ghost Nets with Myanmar Ocean Project
2020-04-16

I have just returned from a three month Industrial Placement with Myanmar Ocean Project, an NGO focused on addressing the pervasive issue of discarded fishing gear or ‘ghost gear’ across Myanmar. This was part of an industrial fellowship scheme aimed at involving postgraduate researchers in an applied field of research with an industry, or in this case an NGO, in order to gain experience in a relevant field of work.

I joined the team to test how drones and submersible remotely operated vehicles could be used to search for this gear. It was a fantastic opportunity to explore the potential for this technology to address the issue of discarded fishing gear in a part of the world where this is a particular problem. This was my first experience of marine aerial surveying, and I was excited to observe the effectiveness of the technique for underwater exploration.

I flew the drone every morning from the beach and these flights regularly captured not only shoals of fish, but also squads of juvenile eagle rays patrolling the sandbars and, of course the pervasive presence of fishing waste, as tangles of nets were clearly visible close to the shore. I quickly learned that the best conditions for sampling was in the morning, before boat traffic started, the wind was still low, and the sea was clear.

After a quick breakfast on the go, we would dive and survey for nets at multiple sites per day, and I used the ROV to conduct underwater surveys. In almost every dive we found fishing gear, and usually some fish entangled too. This brought home to me how large the scale of the ghost-fishing issue really is, in Myanmar and globally, and how much needs to be done to remove what is there, and prevent new gear from entering the marine ecosystem. We concluded on the basis of this pilot study that a combination of aerial and underwater surveying is optimal for estimating the scale and distribution of ghost gear in tropical waters, and we are in discussion with our partners on further work developing and promoting this method across the world.

This project opened up a great deal for me, and I’m very grateful to Myanmar Ocean Project and Global Ghost Gear Initiative for having me on board, and to Research and Innovation for supporting this research. To learn more about the project, the issue of ghost fishing and work being done by Myanmar Ocean Project, please visit http://www.myanmarocean.org/ Instagram- @MyanmarOcean

To learn more about the issue of ghost fishing, visit https://www.ghostgear.org/

Published by The School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen

Search Blog

Browse by Month

2024

  1. Jan There are no items to show for January 2024
  2. Feb
  3. Mar There are no items to show for March 2024
  4. Apr There are no items to show for April 2024
  5. May There are no items to show for May 2024
  6. Jun There are no items to show for June 2024
  7. Jul There are no items to show for July 2024
  8. Aug There are no items to show for August 2024
  9. Sep There are no items to show for September 2024
  10. Oct There are no items to show for October 2024
  11. Nov There are no items to show for November 2024
  12. Dec There are no items to show for December 2024

2023

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar There are no items to show for March 2023
  4. Apr
  5. May There are no items to show for May 2023
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug There are no items to show for August 2023
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov There are no items to show for November 2023
  12. Dec

2022

  1. Jan There are no items to show for January 2022
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun There are no items to show for June 2022
  7. Jul There are no items to show for July 2022
  8. Aug
  9. Sep There are no items to show for September 2022
  10. Oct
  11. Nov There are no items to show for November 2022
  12. Dec

2021

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug There are no items to show for August 2021
  9. Sep
  10. Oct There are no items to show for October 2021
  11. Nov
  12. Dec There are no items to show for December 2021

2020

  1. Jan There are no items to show for January 2020
  2. Feb There are no items to show for February 2020
  3. Mar There are no items to show for March 2020
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec