January 11, 2023 — Those who make their living out on the open ocean now have the opportunity to partake in a side hustle that simultaneously tidies up the environment.
Commercial fishermen have been offered a “bounty” to collect derelict fishing gear, often the culprit of the death of marine animals, and bring the debris back to shore.
Hawaii Pacific University’s Center for Marine Debris Research has launched a project to pay eligible commercial fishers to remove fishing gear at sea before it strikes Hawaii’s coral reefs or wildlife, according to a press release from the university.
The fishermen will be paid a bounty of between $1 and $3 per dry pound of derelict fishing gear found at sea and brought back to Oahu, the research center said.
The research center first tested the program between 2020 and 2021, when researchers trying to determine where the fishing gear was coming from paid fishermen who were already fishing near the northwest Hawaiian islands, the main Hawaiian islands and the North Pacific gyre a bounty to collect the debris and bring it back, Raquel Corniuk, research manager for Hawaii Pacific University’s Center for Marine Debris Research, told ABC News.