BLUENET

BLUENET, creating new life for abandoned, lost or discarded fishing and aquaculture gears to prevent marine litter generation.

According to experts, 4.6-12.7 million tonnes of marine litter are added every year to our seas and oceans (Jambeck et al, 2015).

The Strand 2 “Marine Litter” of Sustainable Blue Economy call (European Commission) is looking for actions that reduce, monitor and quantify, remove and recycle marine litter produced by sea-based sources, such as fishing and aquaculture, shipping or offshore installations.

BLUENET aims at reducing, by the end of 2020, the marine litter from sea-based sources and from the SE Bay of Biscay by 20-40 %.

The sources to be investigated are aquaculture and fisheries, and the amount and harmfulness of marine litter produced by their Abandoned, Lost or Discarded Fishing Gears (ALDFG).

This will be achieve by

PROMOTING

PROMOTING

the proactivity of the sectors in combating marine litter, through ocean literacy.

PREVENTING

PREVENTING

The intentional and unintentional disposal of nets and ropes at the sea.

FACILITATING

FACILITATING

the recovery of nets and ropes to fishers and aquaculture operators.

UPCYCLING

UPCYCLING

by recycling them as raw materials for manufacturing new fishing and acualculture gears.

Our last news

Last marine litter characterization for BLUENET

On the 11 of June 2021, we completed our last characterization of marine litter for BLUENET project. This time we analyzed the marine litter collected by the trawler 'Eguzkilore', our only beam trawler collaborating with BLUENET’s Fishing for Litter initiative, as well as the litter [...]

Last sampling of BLUENET at sea

Last week AZTI staff conducted the last sampling of the project at the Matxitxako Moluskoak offshore longline facilities, where the prototypes of ropes developed with recycled materials were located.  Mussels are growing well and the ropes seem to have held up very well [...]

Good practices onboard fishing vessels

Last week we had the chance to join our friends from the Kaxarra F/V (pair trawler, Port of Ondarroa), in one of their fishing trips.    We were positively surprised to see by first hand that onboard produced litter and fished marine litter is [...]

BLUENET at the “Sustainable blue economy: a systemic approach to tackle marine litter” event organised by EASME-EMFF

BLUENET has participated with different EU-funded marine litter-related projects in the “Sustainable blue economy: a systemic approach to tackle marine litter” online event organised by EASME.  Together with other fellow project managers, Mariana Mata Lara (AQUA-LIT), Fantina Madricardo (marGnet), Marisa Almeida (NetTag), Sonia [...]

BLUENET video goes online!

Sea-based sources of marine represent the 35% of items found floating (55% in terms of weight) in the coastal waters of the Bay of Biscay. In general terms, up to 1 million tonnes [...]

4th BLUENET progress meeting

Last December 18th, BLUENET team held the 4th progress meeting. This meeting takes place every six months to share and discussed the performed work and the steps to undertake in the near future. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, as happened [...]