More than 700 tonnes of 'ghost gear' removed from Canadian waters

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans says 739 tonnes of abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear, often called ghost gear, has been removed from the waters off Canada's Atlantic and Pacific coasts in the last two years.

That includes more than 118 kilometres of rope, an amount DFO says could almost stretch from Fredericton to Saint John, N.B.

Traps used in the lobster and crab fisheries made up the bulk of the gear retrieved — about 84 per cent.

The remaining 16 per cent was a combination of nets and longlines from various fisheries.