Mexico adheres to the GGGI

The government of Mexico joined the Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) on October 20.

Previously, on July 16, the State Department announced that the United States formally joined as a member government of this multi-stakeholder association, joining 15 other governments and 85 non-governmental partners.

A month earlier, the State Department signed a statement in support of the GGGI promising continued assistance from the United States Government to address abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear.

This type of debris, also known as “ghost gear,” can be one of the most damaging forms of marine debris in the global ocean, causing serious impacts to the environment, as well as to the many economic sectors that depend on a healthy ocean for earn income.

The GGGI is the largest international initiative working to address the problem of ghost gear and has broad representation in industry, government and civil society.

In addition, according to the US government, the GGGI does much-needed work to measure the impacts of ghost gear and to develop, share and document best practices to address it.

GGGI 

In response to its commitments in the Treaty between Mexico, the United States and Canada (USMCA), the Ministry of Economy said that Mexico is making progress in protecting the oceans.

In abundance, the GGGI is the world’s largest multi-sectoral alliance to drive solutions to the problem of lost, abandoned or otherwise discarded fishing nets, better known as “ghost nets”.

The objectives of the Initiative are to improve the situation of marine ecosystems, protect fauna from the damage generated by these networks, as well as contribute to the health and livelihoods of human communities.

Mexico’s accession was decided after a period of inter-ministerial consultation between competent federal authorities, which was coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and included the Secretaries of the Navy, Agriculture and Rural Development, Environment and Natural Resources, and Economy, in addition to the National Aquaculture and Fisheries Commission, the National Fisheries Institute, the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection and the National Commission for Protected Natural Areas.

According to the World Wildlife Fund, ghost nets are the deadliest form of marine plastic, as they non-selectively capture wildlife and cause its death.

According to this organization, between 500,000 and 1 million tons of fishing equipment is abandoned or lost in the ocean each year.

The GGGI was created in September 2015 and, to this day, includes participants from the fishing industry, academia, the public and private sectors, intergovernmental organizations and civil society.

Mexico is the seventeenth country in the world to express its formal adherence to this important international initiative.