With a $1 million boost from DFO, this Marine Institute team is fishing up ghost gear

When Hurricane Fiona swept through Newfoundland’s southwest coast last fall, it pushed a large amount of fishing gear into the Atlantic Ocean.

Now the Marine Institute’s Center for Sustainable Aquatic Resources is mapping the ocean floor and preparing to retrieve some of the “ghost equipment” that has been drawn into the depths.

“There was a lot of other devastation in the area, but this project is focused on the fishing gear,” said Mark Santos, a Marine Institute fisheries technologist who is leading the project. “A lot of fishermen store stuff on the wharf, and when the storm came up, it swept a lot of that stuff out to sea. What we’re trying to do is locate that stuff and get it back.”

The Center for Sustainable Aquatic Resources has received more than $1 million from Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s (DFO) Ghost Gear Fund. Santos’ team, consisting of both staff and students from the Marine Institute, is currently scanning the area between Cape St. George and St. George’s. Once collected, equipment is sorted and returned to owners or recycled. There are plans to work in other areas along the southwest coast as well.

“Ten days on the water,” said Santos on Monday. “[We’re] using side-scan sonar and multi-beam sonar we have identified more than 800 targets so far.”

Targets are what Santos’ team calls potential ghost gear detected by their machines. He said a remote-controlled vehicle (ROV) will be used to attach and retrieve the equipment.

“What we think we see are crab pots and lobster pots just by the shape on the sonar,” he said. “Anything strange shines. Lobster pots are easy to identify by their shape.”

Santos said the team is seeing what it suspects is a lot of old gear, some of which was likely lost years before Fiona.

He said they also detected an unusual anomaly with their multibeam sonar: a strange object shaped like an airplane.

“We actually won’t know what it is until they start the retrieval process with the ROV,” he said.

The team will return within two weeks.

Santos said the crew needs some time to process the data from the past two weeks and enter all the coordinates so they know where to start the retrieval process.

While Santos and his team are currently on the Cartwright, a Marine Institute research vessel, the retrieval process will involve the involvement of local harvesters and the Mi’kmaq Alsumk Mowimsikik Koqoey Association (MAMKA).

“So we will have several boats in the water for the retrieval process,” Santos said.

Meanwhile, the three students aboard the Cartwright are having a great learning experience.

“Getting out on the water, learning how to use some different technologies and just helping out is really cool,” said marine environment student John James.

He said his job on the ship involved a lot of ocean mapping. In addition to ghost gear, James said they spot a lot of aquatic life.

“We’re seeing schools that are so big that it’s picked up by the side scan and multibeam,” James said. “Lots of fish, many whales.”

James said he also saw some white-beaked dolphins.

Santos said he loves getting the students involved.

“The guys have a chance to be on the water and do some good by cleaning up the ocean,” he said.

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