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For comparison: About 60 tons (53 metric tons) of fishing nets are lost each month, reportedly. [1]

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/06/dumped-f...

It would be nice if fishermen could only use certified nets that costed an hefty fee to encourage strategies to prevent loss of nets and also to provide extra funding to ocean cleanup efforts from the proceeds of these certified nets.

From my experience, small scale local fishermen are very invested in not losing nets. They are a big investments. Most would actually be very happy if nets had some form of fingerprint identification in order to combat theft and illegal fishing, especially if the police could look it up in a central register.

Regulation in this area would be a win-win for almost everyone involved.

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