Removal of Ghost Nets to Save Sea Life in Bahía de los Ángeles, Baja California
bahia de los angeles by dan rosenberg
Bahía de los Ángeles is protected marine Biosphere Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site
While Dan was volunteering for the National Commission of Protected Natural Areas (CONANP), it became abundantly clear that initiating a project to strategically remove abandoned or lost fishing nets would have the most bang for the buck for protecting sea life in this incredible place. Together with several NGOs in Baja California and the local La Voz del Oceano, Dan developed a proposal to initiate net removals.
Photo: Marisol Lizárraga
Discarded, abandoned, and lost fishing nets cause extreme harm to marine animals. These nets are often called "ghost nets" because they continue to indiscriminately capture and kill marine life for decades.
This year, OWI and collaborators are conducting two pilot projects to fine tune methods to expand to the entire Biosphere Reserve and Marine National Park, an area of over 1,000,000 acres.
Thanks to our generous donors, this fall we will be conducting Phase II of the pilot project that will evaluate a strategic approach to search for ghost fishing gear. If successful, we will seek funds that will allow us to expand to the entire Biosphere Reserve and adjacent Marine National Park.
A big thanks to our collaborators to remove ghost nets in the Bahía de los Ángeles Biosphere Reserve
The dedicated and skilled work of the community group La Voz del Oceano was critical to the project’s success. Searching and removing ghost nets using SCUBA is very difficult and hard work. They have shown that ghost nets and other fishing gear reported by fisherman to our federal agency partner, CONANP, can be efficiently removed – and thereby safeguarding the sea.
The project was only possible through generous contributions from the Coalition to Remove Ghost Nets from Bahía de los Ángeles, including donors from Mexico and the United States.
Donate to the Bahía de los Ángeles Ghost Net Project.
Your donation goes to the Mexican conservationists, divers and educators working to eliminate ghost nets from Bahía de los Ángeles. Senior staff at Oregon Wildlife Institute are contributing to the effort on a wholly volunteer basis and take no salary during work on the project.