Support Measures

Increase activities to retrieve ALDFG by mapping of known locations of underwater obstacles in combination with the use of ship sonars. Develop clean-up methods and assess the reasons why and where farmers lose gear. Successful cooperation with aquaculture companies when mapping lost gear host areas and planning retrieval activities can motivate the aquaculture farmers to further engage in the work and helps to earn their trust. A deeper involvement of aquaculture farmers during mapping would show interest in their expertise and can change the attitude towards more sensitive topics, such as preventive measures. Support return or deposit refund systems (DRS) with monitoring data. One indicator for checking deposit systems is the return rate. This indicator can be used to determine the effectiveness of a deposit system and to retain products in the cycle (reusable) or disposable products. If monitoring is an integral part of the EPR measures, the marginal cost is almost zero. This may support the idea of high recycling rates due to the EPR measures. Basis for well-founded assessment of a newly established DRS for aquaculture gear packaging and/or other single-use plastic items is a solid database on the amount of non-refundable single-use items. Items need to be well-defined related to simple return system or DRS and should be integrated into established marine monitoring programmes (in the swash zone of beaches, on the sea floor and in the stomachs of selected indicator types). Some compartments could even be added, such as monitoring of defined aquaculture litter in aquatic systems to get the whole picture.