In 2018, Sea Shepherd UK launched their Ghostnet Campaign, part of Sea Shepherd's wider mission to rid the oceans of discarded fishing gear. 

Our campaign is focused exclusively in UK waters and targets discarded fishing gear that can be extremely harmful to marine wildlife.

Ghost nets are commercial fishing nets that have been lost, abandoned, or discarded at sea. Every year they are responsible for trapping and killing millions of marine animals including sharks, rays, bony fish, turtles, dolphins, whales, crustaceans, and birds. Ghostnets cause further damage by entangling live coral, smothering reefs and introducing parasites and invasive species into reef environments.

During 2018 SSUK used teams of highly trained volunteer divers to recover ghostnets from several locations in the Irish Sea and the English Channel. This year we intend to expand the scope of the campaign to more areas of the UK and increase the number of dives we do. 

We are raising funds to help with the cost of this vital campaign. We need funding for the following:

• Fuel for boats - We use RIBs to transport the divers to site and to return the recovered nets to shore
• Specialist Camera equipment to record our dives and use the footage to educate others about the harm caused by ghostnets
• Specialist 'lift bags' - These are used to raise the nets to the surface
• Specialist cutting equipment - This is essential for removing the nets.

All of the Ghostnet Campaign team are volunteers who give up their time for free and they receive no expenses from SSUK. The money we are raising goes directly towards funding the cost of ghostnet removal and therefore directly to saving wildlife.