GGGI 2024 Small Grants Recipients

The GGGI 2024 Small Grants Recipients have been selected! This year's application cycle was our most competitive yet with nearly $600,000 USD requested by members from 15 countries. We are grateful to all of our small grants applicants: not only is your work incredibly vital in our global effort to combat ALDFG, but reading about your projects continually improves our understanding of the needs of our GGGI members. We are continually inspired by your efforts to improve the health of our ocean.

Additionally, the 2024 Joanna Toole Solutions Award recipients have also been announced. The Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions Award was created and first announced on World Oceans Day in 2019 to honor the tragic passing of GGGI co-founder, United Nations worker, and former World Animal Protection campaigner, Joanna (Jo) Toole, 36, whose life was tragically taken in the Ethiopian airlines crash in March 2019. In honor of Joanna’s legacy, the Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions Award has been awarded annually since 2019 to ghost gear projects that focus on positive animal impacts and female leadership in the ghost gear space. This year, with generous funding from the Joanna Toole Foundation and the government of Norway, we are funding two separate organizations for the 2024 Joanna Toole Awards. This year’s winners are Biosfera and the Manta Caribbean Project.

Below, you'll find the projects selected with input from our GGGI staff and Expert Advisory Council. Congratulations to all our successful applicants!

Joanna Toole Ghost Gear Solutions Awards

Biosfera

Restore, Transform and Educate: A Strategy to Tackle ALDFG

Biosfera’s “Restore Transform and Educate” project aims to address the issue of lost and abandoned fishing gear on the islands of Santa Luzia and São Vicente in Cape Vede. Due to Cape Verde’s location in the North Atlantic Gyre, the northern archipelago beaches are prone to the accumulation of marine debris—especially ALDFG. These beaches serve as important nesting sites for the loggerhead sea turtle, who cannot breed safely among the pollution. This project will organize beach clean up activities and data collection along with the education of fishermen and fishing communities on the islands. Education will be completed through the develop of a podcast, social media materials and workshops.

Manta Caribbean Project

Reduce Wildlife Entanglement in Ghost Gear within MPAs in the Northern Region of the Yucatan Peninsula

Marine Protected Areas play a vital role for the protection of ecosystems and wildlife. The Manta Caribbean Project’s works to ensure that endangered manta rays can coexist alongside the fishing activities within Mexico’s Caribbean region. This project will identify ALDFG within two Mexican MPAs (Contoy Island National Park and the Mexican Caribbean Biosphere Reserve), provide ongoing training to fishing cooperatives on best practices for the management of fishing gear, and report on recommendations for end-of-life solutions in the region. In addition, a new method of gear for harvesting lobster (“lobster shadows”) will be trialed with a working group.

2024 GGGI Small Grant Awardees

Indigo Waters

Best Practice of Gillnet Recycling in East Asia

According to GGGI’s Best Practice Framework for the Management of Fishing Gear, gillnets are the most harmful form of marine debris due to the high likelihood of loss, the impact of lost gear on the environment, and the wide availability of the gear at low cost to fishermen. Building on their previous research, Indigo Waters will conduct a series of interviews with stakeholders (including fishermen, government officials and the plastic recycling industry) to understand the challenges of gillnet fishery management and the possibility of gillnet recycling in East Asia. Following their interviews, Indigo Waters will compile a best practice report to fill the knowledge gap around gillnet recycling in the region. The results of this report will be share in three workshops with key stakeholder groups to disseminate the information.

Local Independent Sea Anglers (LISA) Anglers National Line Recycling Scheme (ANLRS)

Sussex Coastal ALDFG Recover and Recycle Project

The Angler’s National Line Recycling Scheme is expanding on the success of past years, recycling more than 125 million meters of monofilament and more than 100,000 single use plastic items generated from recreational angling in the UK. With funding from their 2024 small grant, ANLRS plans to expand their footprint to three geographies by recovering lost gear, collecting data and information on its source, sending recovered material for recycling, and implementing an awareness campaign to encourage participation from local fishing communities.

Patuakhali Science and Technology University

Improve the Understanding of Causes, Impacts and Measures of Ghost Gear

Bangladesh is located on the Bay of Bengal, which supports vast commercial and artisanal fisheries. Through this grant opportunity, Patuakhali Science and Technology University (PSTU) will expand their efforts to understand local causes of gear loss, and educate fishing communities on its impacts to St. Martine Island and Chittagong. In addition to organizing community workshops, PSTU will also host a community policy dialogue to provide policy recommendations for the prevention and mitigation of fishing in the Bay of Bengal. 

Stand Out for Environmental Restoration

Fishing Net Gains

The Fishing Net Gans program created by Stand Out for Environmental Restoration (SOFER) established gear disposal facilities (“HubNets”) in key communities along Nigeria’s coasts. This project will hire 16 individuals to conduct gear removals from 8 community beaches and ensure proper disposal and processing at existing HubNet facilities. Additionally, funds will support the creation of a “Community Integrated Center” (CIC) with sewing machines and a loom, where women in the community can turn the fishing gear into marketable products such as fabrics, shoes, baskets and bags.