Winners of annual Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions Award announced

Two innovative initiatives, which are paving the way to protect our ocean’s wildlife, have been selected as the winners of the third annual Joanna Toole Ghost Solutions Award.

The accolade is given to projects that submit the most compelling ways to tackle abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear, also known as ghost gear. The combined value of the prize is USD 40,000 which will be shared between this year’s winners – The Myanmar Ocean Project and The Coastal Restoration Society (CRS).

Established in 2019, the Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions Award honours Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) co-founder, United Nations worker and former World Animal Protection campaigner, Joanna Toole, 36, whose life was tragically taken in the Ethiopian airlines crash in March 2019.

All of the incredible applications were reviewed by experts from the GGGI and the Joanna Toole Foundation.

Meet the winners

The Myanmar Ocean Project

The Myanmar Ocean Project is a non-profit working to raise awareness of ocean conservation in Myanmar and support ghost gear solutions across the country. Despite being one of the most untouched island groups in the world, Myeik Archipelago has still been impacted by ghost fishing gear. However, the organisation, which has been a GGGI member since 2019, is conducting surveys and clean-up expeditions there to ensure the area’s wildlife is protected.

The Myanmar Ocean Project will use their award to interview fishers in the region to better understand local gear loss and use this data to identify ghost gear hotspots and create education materials for both fishers and the public.

Find out more about the Myanmar Ocean Project

The Coastal Restoration Society (CRS)

The Coastal Restoration Society (CRS) is a non-profit based in British Columbia, Canada, which specialises in habitat restoration within traditional First Nation territories in support of Indigenous stewardship values. The organisation works on a wide variety of marine issues, including ghost gear removal, and works with maritime professionals, environmental scientists and First Nations stewards for all of their projects. These include shoreline clean-ups, derelict vessels removals and the removal of pollutants from aquafarming. This effort is imperative in bringing key stakeholders to the table.

The organisation, which have been a GGGI member since 2020, will use their award money to fund and conduct ghost gear retrievals within Ahousaht First Nation unceded territory in Clayoquot Sound. Partnering with Maaqutusiis Hahoulthee Stewardship Society (MHSS), Ahousaht and British Columbia Parks, CRS will identify areas with high levels of ghost gear, removing at least 90% of it within four days, and work with local recycling and waste facilities in order to recycle, creatively upcycle or responsibly dispose of the debris.

Find out more about The Coastal Restoration Society

What is ghost gear?

Ghost gear refers to any fishing gear that has been abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded.

It’s the most harmful form of marine debris to ocean life, and among the most prevalent. An estimated 640,000 tonnes of ghost gear is left in our oceans each year – more than one metric tonne every minute.

By providing support to innovative projects taking on this threat, this award will make our waters safer for marine wildlife and will help safeguard the livelihoods of coastal communities that depend on our oceans – something that Joanna dedicated her professional life to achieving.

Joanna’s impact on animal protection

World Animal Protection has funded the first three years of the Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions Award, created to honour the life of Joanna Toole. As a GGGI co-founder, United Nations worker, and former World Animal Protection campaigner, Joanna dedicated herself to animal protection.

Tragically, her life was taken in the Ethiopian airlines crash in March 2019, but her legacy and impact lives on. The video below highlights just some of the incredible work that has been able to happen – all because of Joanna.

The first award winner in 2019 was the International Pole and Line Foundation (IPNLF). IPNLF worked in collaboration with the Olive Ridley Project to implement a pilot project in Gemanafushi Island in the Maldives to incentivize the removal of ghost fishing gear from the ocean by small-scale tuna fishers.

What is the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI)?

The GGGI is the only cross-sectoral alliance dedicated to solving the problem of abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear around the world. The initiative brings together more than 120 member organisations, including 18 national governments, as well as representatives from civil society, the private sector, public agencies, academia, intergovernmental organisations, and others from across the fishing industry, to tackle ghost gear at a global scale.

Since its founding in 2015, the GGGI has worked to implement a wide variety of approaches to ghost gear across prevention, mitigation and remediation strategies, shaping fisheries management policy and building evidence of the global consequences of ghost gear.

Find out more about Global Ghost Gear Initiative

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