Canada continues to tout itself as a “world leader” in tackling ghost gear’s threats to marine life and coastal communities even though funding for the program dried up in 2024. 

Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO’s) former investments to address abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear, were axed without explanation by the federal Liberals more than a year ago, said Gord Johns, NDP MP for the Courtenay-Alberni riding on Vancouver Island. 

Core pillars of the ghost gear program to retrieve the plastic pollution and responsibly dispose of, recycle, or return ghost gear, have been cut completely, or dramatically scaled back, since the program launched in 2020, Johns said. What’s more, Ottawa remains silent about future ghost gear funding after the release of the recent budget in November.

Yet in social media videos posted in November, DFO is still showcasing Canada’s “pioneering ocean conservation efforts” to combat the ghost gear problem, which the department describes as a “major threat” to marine life, commercial fish stocks and food security, ocean habitats and coastal livelihoods. 

Johns says he’s repeatedly questioned the program’s fate in the House and presented a public petition calling on the government to restore it. The coastal MP has also met with Fisheries and Ocean’s Minister Joanne Thompson to present ways to finance the successful program.

“It was one of the most effective ocean protection programs Canada’s ever created on plastic pollution and whale entanglements,” Johns said. 

“I’m getting nothing but crickets from them. They just let it collapse. It’s just so disappointing.” 

DFO and Thompson’s office have also refused to answer repeated questions from Canada’s National Observer about federal funding for the ghost gear program. 

A June 2024 DFO staff memo to former fisheries minister Diane Lebouthillier, obtained by Canada’s National Observer through an access to information request, outlines the program’s successes and repeatedly warns the minister there is no further funding. 

“With no funds identified for targeted ghost gear project funding beyond 2024, there has been negative reactions from our partners, including Indigenous groups, harvesters and fishing associations and the environmental non-governmental organization community across Canada,” the memo stated. 

“Further, eliminating the funded retrieval activities prior to introducing the tools to prevent gear loss could be seen as increasing the threat [of] entrapment and entanglement posed by ghost gear, particularly to the North Atlantic right whale.” 

Ghost Gear Program Impacts

Of the approximately 58 million spent on the program until March 2024, the bulk, 75 per cent, was spent on coastal clean up projects. A further 11 per cent went into recycling and disposal efforts, six per cent went into trials for innovative technology, and four per cent supported international clean up programs, according to the DFO memo. 

The overall program involved 143 projects (including nine abroad) that supported 67 harbours and 61 Indigenous-led projects, involved nearly 800 partners and created 2,000 jobs. 

DFO efforts are now focused on public engagement sessions slated this spring in order to develop a Ghost Gear Action Plan by 2027, the department told Canada’s National Observer in an email. 

Commercial fishers are also still required to use the lost gear reporting system set up by DFO in 2021, to detail when, where and what equipment they’ve lost. 

A small-scale pilot project to explore the retrieval of derelict gear during the fishing season by commercial harvesters in the Arctic region is taking place, DFO wrote. The federal government is also developing the capacity to respond to urgent situations involving ghost gear by creating a pre-approved list of groups that can respond “if and when needed.” 

Chloé Dubois, executive director of the Ocean Legacy Foundation, said the ghost gear program fostered training, equipment and infrastructure in coastal communities that are at risk of being lost. 

The marine debris depots Ocean Legacy helped set up as a result of the ghost gear program — seven in BC and a centre in Nova Scotia — are still operating but it’s a challenge to find the necessary resources, Dubois said. 

“They’re not as robust as they were, and we’re not able to provide as many resources and the support we were to a lot of the communities we were working with,”  she said. 

Ghost gear remains an ongoing threat to marine life, especially for at-risk humpback whales and endangered North Atlantic right whales on the east coast, Dubois said. 

“Ghost gear is the deadliest form of plastic pollution,” she said.  

“It indefinitely continues to fish long into the future, and that has grave implications for our coastal marine life” 

More than 2,500 tonnes of ghost fishing gear and 976 kilometres of plastic rope were hauled from Canadian waters as part of the program, according to DFO. 

Tens of thousands of animals have been killed or maimed by ghost gear internal federal documents obtained by Canada’s National Observer reveal. Data from DFO’s gear reporting system provides a snapshot of the scale of the problem, with 86,000 marine animals found ensnared in derelict gear between 2020 and 2023. 

Ocean Legacy also sources plastics from fishing ropes and other gear to manufacture durable secondary products such as planters and household items, or “plastic lumber” for park benches, patio furniture and picnic tables.

In addition to restoring coastal clean-ups of ghost gear, the federal government should be taking steps to foster a circular economy for plastics, Dubois said. The virgin plastics industry is heavily subsidized, making it hard for recycled manufacturers to compete, she added. 

If the federal government mandated recycled content in plastics using materials from domestic sources, “it would stimulate the recycling industry overnight,” she said. 

Johns said measures such as a small ecosystem service fee on cargo ship containers or the production of new plastic gear could fund coastal clean-up efforts. 

Canada lacks a coordinated, properly funded response to marine pollution, other than oil spills, and cutting the ghost gear funding has only aggravated the situation, he said. 

“This is not a niche environmental issue,” Johns said. 

“It’s about public safety, food security, reconciliation and whether Canada is serious about stopping plastic pollution at the source instead of just talking about it.” 

Rochelle Baker / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observe

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