Model Barbara Meier is the new project ambassador for the WWF campaign against ghost nets
Model
and actress Barbara Meier is the new project ambassador for the WWF
campaign against ghost nets in the Baltic Sea.
“The oceans are much more
than just recreational areas or a breath-taking backdrop. We must
better protect our oceans and stop them from being polluted with plastic
waste,” said Meier.
About ten percent of the plastic waste in the oceans comprise ghost
nets (lost or discarded fishing nets). In the Baltic Sea alone, up to
10,000 fishing nets are lost every year. Meier will publicise the
negative impact of ghost nets to the public.
To highlight the issue, she was photographed with a fish cutter after a dive in the waters of Rügen.
“We
had dived into a wreck where there were ghost nets were entangled. The
ship's hull was entirely wrapped in old plastic nets, which was obvious
even in the low visibility,” said Meier as she described her experiences in her first dive in the Baltic Sea.
The actress was impressed by the subsequent salvage of the ghost nets.
The nets were marked with buoys, cut free with a fish cutter and then
hoisted on board.
“It is time-consuming to track down ghost nets and
retrieve them from the seabed, but it feels good to know that the
Baltic Sea is a little cleaner now,” said Meier.
Her bond with the sea had started when she was a child. “As
a child, I often listened to whale songs and was fascinated by the
mysterious realm of the sea. It is clear that plastic waste in any form
damages the ocean.”
The WWF calls upon divers to report ghost nets which they come across when diving in the Baltic Sea (as we had reported previously).
The ghost nets' location, description and photos can be sent to
Geisternetze@wwf.de and the data will be entered into a database of the
Baltic Sea.
To date, the WWF has retrieved five tons of ghost nets off the coast of Rügen and Usedom during this salvage season.
For more information see here
Mares
10th November 2016
