About 70% of heavy plastics floating in oceans may be lost fishing gear, estimates the United Nations, and it’s a problem that is very much on the international radar of both government and industry the past few years. Of all ocean trash, this glut of bulky gear is the most harmful to marine life, threatening both the ecosystem and fishing industry.
Thanda Ko Gyi,
director for Myanmar Ocean Project,
has seen firsthand how lost gear that’s drifted to sea, as well as gear intentionally tossed overboard, has ravished the waters
off Myanmar, a remote but heavily populated country near Thailand.