FAO.org

Fishing gear marking has been long recognized as a tool to improve the overall management of fisheries (e.g. regulating fishing effort by recording the amounts of gear used) and to contribute to more sustainable fisheries through the prevention and reduction of abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) and its impacts, including its contributions to sea-based marine plastic litter (SBMPL).

Fishing gear marking can also contribute to improved safety at sea by reducing hazards to navigation and assist in the identification of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities. The  Voluntary Guidelines for the Marking of Fishing Gear (VGMFG)  were endorsed by the thirty-third FAO Committee on Fisheries  (COFI 33), in July 2018.This followed an  Expert Consultation (2016), a Technical Consultation (2018), the completion of  a pilot gear-marking study in Indonesia in small-scale gillnet fisheries  performed in conjunction with the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI)  (2018), and a study on “Stakeholders' views on methods to identify the ownership and track the position of drifting fish aggregating devices used by tuna purse seine fisheries” (2018).

The VGMFG address all elements that are relevant to set up, implement and monitor effective gear marking systems and related measures to address ALDFG. The systems-approach is much broader than only the possibility to mark the gear to identify the gear owner. This approach considers the holistic requirements for gear marking to be efficient in its purpose, including mechanisms to ensure legality, enforcement, lost gear reporting and recovery, and the safe and environmentally sound disposal of ALDFG and unwanted fishing gear.

• https://sites.google.com/view/marking-fishing-gears/home
• https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfeoj2tN-F4KQ7lM04l10imcNdxR9waCtDi1CBt4OKcLyoJJw/viewform