February 9, 2026 — When most people think of ocean waste, they often picture mounds of plastic that wash up on the sandy beaches of remote islands in the Pacific. But environmentalists face a hidden scourge in abandoned fishing nets that drift beneath the waves and blanket the ocean floor.
These discarded “ghost nets” are typically made of durable nylon and can last for centuries, trapping marine life and damaging coral reefs. Getting them off the ocean floor can require dayslong dives from expert teams. A mission from 2024 spanned five days and pulled up 4,900 kilograms of netting — roughly the weight of an African elephant.
Now, some start-ups are trying to tackle the problem by recycling the nets into commercial products that will appeal to consumers interested in saving the oceans and companies eager to prove they are environmentally friendly. Some are making soccer and volleyball nets; others are making surfboards or bracelets.
A brother and sister in Spain started a company to collect and turn the ghost nets into furniture, decorative materials and plastic pellets.
Gravity Wave works with companies that want to finance cleanup operations to burnish their green credentials, as well as partners that buy the recycled materials to use in items ranging from furniture to stadium seating. The initiative supports waste collectors, recycling facilities and manufacturers.
The port in Motril, a small town in southern Spain, was one of the first to join Gravity Wave’s efforts. Today, Gravity Wave works with more than 7,000 fishermen in 150 ports in Spain, Italy and Greece to recover discarded nets and other ocean plastics.
But fishermen cannot collect all of the nets in the ocean. To retrieve the ones tangled on the seafloor, a team of experienced divers must head to the bottom of the sea to tie the nets together with large ropes, which a crane then hoists to a boat, an endeavor that can take days. Gravity Wave teams up with specialized dive teams for those operations.