Fishing Industry Ghost Gear

Fishing industry ghost gear is the deadliest form of ocean plastic, comprising an estimated 10% of all marine plastic debris by weight. A single gillnet can drift for 600 years, entangling over 500 whales annually alongside turtles and seabirds, with cleanup costs averaging $1,000 per ton retrieved. While single-use packaging dwarfs it in volume by 4x, ghost gear causes 3 times more direct animal fatalities per kilogram than any other source on this list, making it the most lethal per unit weight.