Would fishermen be prepared to use biodegradable fishing gear in the marine environment? And if so, under what conditions?

As part of the INdIGO research project, led by the University of Southern Brittany (UBS), with both French and English partners, a new survey has been launched to ask these and other questions of professional fishermen.

The aim of the survey is to ensure the needs and expectations of fishermen will be met in the development of more environmentally friendly fishing gear. The survey aims to reach around 300 professional fishermen on both sides of the Channel.

The European funded project INdIGO, which started in late 2019, has brought together 10 French and English academic and industrial partners in order to develop prototype biodegradable fishing gear for use in the marine environment and also to improve the recycling of existing gear at the end of its life. To achieve these aims, the partners are working with fishermen and professional maritime organisations to develop resistant prototype fishing gear that will meet their needs and requirements.

The aim of the fishermen survey is to gather the opinions of fishing professionals on two specific aspects:

Section 1 – The Technical Questionnaire will enable the project to build an inventory of the types of plastics currently being used in the fishing and aquaculture sectors. The results of this part of the survey will allow the project to learn more about abandoned, lost and otherwise discarded fishing gear in order to assess what happens to it and to improve the recycling of end of life gear.

In order to gather this information in the UK, project partner Cefas (the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science), will use their teams of Fisheries Observers to contact fishermen direct to conduct telephone interviews which will take about 15 minutes to complete.

Any professional fishermen wishing to contact Cefas direct to take part in this survey should get in touch with : indigo.project@cefas.co.uk

Section 2 – The Behaviour Questionnaire will be used to identify what may or may not encourage fishermen to adopt biodegradable fishing gear for marine use. The results gathered in this section of the survey will allow the project partners to improve and optimise the prototype fishing gear at each stage of manufacture. The fishermen will then be invited to test the new prototype fishing gear during their daily activities and give essential feedback.

Fishermen are asked to complete this section of the survey online at http://indigo-interregproject.eu/en/fishermen-survey/

To find out more about the INdIGO project, visit the website: http://indigo-interregproject.eu/ or send an email to indigo.project@univ-ubs.fr .

To be kept informed of the INdIGO project findings, events and activities please sign up to the Interest Group at  http://www.marinesoutheast.co.uk/indigo/