Stakeholder engagement report: An assessment of potential options for improved management of end-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear

Background

The Scottish Government’s Marine Litter Strategy for Scotland^[1] was refreshed in 2022 and is a key deliverable of the UK Marine Strategy^[2], the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy^[3], and supports our Scottish circular economy ambitions. We published new actions focused on the most problematic types of marine litter, including fishing and aquaculture gear. This reflects our commitments through the British Irish Council^[4] and the OSPAR Convention^[5] to improve the waste management of end-of-life fishing and aquaculture gear.

Both the fishing and aquaculture sectors have obligations to prevent pollution arising from their operations. Responsible plastics and waste management is taught through formal professional education for fishers, including waste management logs and port landing notifications. It is also further encouraged by KIMO^[6] which implements the Fishing for Litter scheme in Scotland. The aquaculture sector has a salmon sustainability charter^[7] and shellfish code of practice^[8] and has waste management requirements within their Crown Estate leases. UK merchant shipping legislation^[9] also underpins the requirement of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) Regulations^[10], to not dump rubbish at sea, including end-of-life gear. In addition, UK legislation^[11] requires adequate waste reception facilities at relevant ports and harbours to support vessels bringing their waste to shore.

However, marine litter from fishing and aquaculture can occur as a result of abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded gear (ALDFG) as well as from poor management of end-of life gear, i.e. gear that has reached the end of its commercially useful or usable life. The extent of pollution from marine sources varies geographically around our coastlines, with some parts of Scotland’s west coast and some islands seeing larger proportions than other areas. In a 2023 study of a selection of locations on Scotland’s west coast mainland and islands, it was demonstrated that litter from marine industry sources amounted to 46% by count and 62% by weight^[12]. The Marine Conservation Society’s State of our Seas 2025 report^[13] showed that 34% of beach litter collected from surveys on Scotland islands was from the fishing and aquaculture sectors compared with 9% on the mainland. In the OSPAR Greater North Sea region (encompassing Scotland) plastic from maritime-related sectors accounts for 25%^[14] of litter found.

The majority of marine litter from the marine sectors is plastic. In the environment it poses a risk to habitats, wildlife, and fish stocks through entanglement, ingestion, and smothering. In addition, degradation creates microplastic pollution, which permeates the ecosystem, impacting all trophic levels including the human food chain via commercial fish species.

UK-wide research^[15] commissioned jointly by the governments of the four nations has provided a broad understanding of the annual volume of end-of-life gear arising from static (e.g. creel) and mobile (e.g. trawl) fisheries, and from finfish (mainly salmon) and shellfish aquaculture. It is estimated that of the 6,850 tonnes of plastic waste generated annually from across the UK sectors, 4,300 tonnes comes from Scotland’s aquaculture sector and 700 tonnes from Scotland’s fisheries, approximately.

However, there is currently a lack of waste management options when this end-of-life gear is brought ashore or decommissioned, with the vast majority going into storage or landfill, and a minority sent for recycling, often abroad. A lack of available facilities or the prohibitive costs of responsible waste management, such as the high cost of labour or sending to landfill, can otherwise result in inaction and increasing stockpiles of end-of-life gear. This results in a risk of these items becoming marine litter as well as the microplastic pollution generated as the gear degrades over time, in addition to terrestrial plastic pollution.

Increasing the lifespan of gear will reduce the volumes of gear that reach the end of their useful or usable life. Research and development in material durability, and improvements to gear design could support this longer term goal, with fewer components used, or components which can be more easily replaced and recycled. This can be facilitated through the implementation of a recently published European standard to improve circular design and recycling of gear^[16].

Some specialised, generally small, businesses already process or recycle components from fishing or aquaculture gear. Used gear is usually heavily contaminated. and the different component materials need to be cleaned, dried dismantled, and sorted before any recycling can begin. Processing is therefore a time-consuming and labour-intensive operation.

Within wider circular economy policy Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Deposit Return schemes have been applied to different products e.g. packaging and drinks containers. The first provides a funding stream from producers to support waste management and promote improved design, the latter encourages waste collection for recycling. EPR schemes had been considered in the UK-wide analysis, noted above. However, such a scheme was considered to be complex and expensive, and disproportionate to the scale of the issue.