Responsibility Measures

Avoid, as far as possible, bringing items into open sea facilities that can potentially turn into garbage, such as plastic feed bags, which can be substituted by heavier containers that cannot fly away so easily. Facilitate the collection of small gear items when they are being removed by bringing containers to the facilities. Purchase very resistant material to harsh conditions. Create surveillance plans which include checking the state of the aquaculture facilities regularly, with the objective to prevent potential gear losses and damages. Create pre-scheduled surveillance plans to obtain information on the life cycle, durability and resistance, etc of the gear and the items used. These plans can be the basis of the farmers’ customized traceability systems. Good practices regarding the waste prevention should be mandatory (no alternative accepted) and they should become another part of the daily work flow. Enlarge the life-cycle of the nets by following a regular maintenance scheme including washing, disinfection, repairing and applying anti-fouling treatments, among others. Promote the local repair and reuse of nets Apply penalties to the companies that do not put in place prevention measures Apply penalties to the companies that do not put in place prevention measures Include also material lost data in the report on sustainability. Some aquaculture companies develop sustainability reports which are usually based on the evaluation of their performance on environmental (and social) indicators. But lost material information is not frequently included. Include an indicator of collection of marine litter around the farm on the report on sustainability. Implement the use of material tracking systems to trace e.g. buoys, etc. Fill in a logbook, keeping track of the bought items, installed and/or used items, the major events happened and any gear loss or break. Make every farmer responsible, as far as possible and considering the recycling and removal schemes in place and in development, for the management and the treatment of their own litter. Create a control system of the aquaculture nets that have reached the end-of-life. The control system should be as simple as possible and based on the idea of returning the old nets to buy new ones.