The Baltic Sea Blueprint: A Step-by-Step Roadmap On How to Approach Derelict Fishing Gear

According to the MARELITT Baltic Project, "THE NEW, comprehensive knowledge generated by the MARELITT Baltic project has been condensed into this Baltic Sea Blueprint. The blueprint crystallises the most crucial requirements into step-by-step recommendations for addressing mitigation within each of the four activities.

This blueprint distills the detailed project findings, which are available in 11 reports, into recommendations, lessons learned and best practices.

All in all, the Baltic Sea Blueprint offers policymakers and harbour managers a strategic mitigation solution that can be used to both plan clean-up operations at sea for plasticizers and to create a waste management system capable of handling DFG.

The mitigation solution is grounded in a process consisting of four key activities: mapping of sea areas where DFG has accumulated, retrieval of DFG from these areas, identification of optimal recycling or waste management options for landed DFG, and prevention through the reduction of gear loss rate during fishing and improved gear marking. The practical work revealed, however, that coordination of these activities requires structured roadmaps. 

Therefore, the blueprint presents so-called pillars that, for each activity, contain references to practical details from the relevant reports, step-by-step recommendations and the potential stakeholders to involve."