Bracenet — SAVE THE SEAS. WEAR A NET.
Ghost nets — this is the name given to fishing nets that are no longer actively used for fishing, have gone overboard in storms, have been damaged during towing or have been deliberately sunk in the sea. Once they have sunk into the sea, they drift around for centuries and continue fishing in an uncontrolled manner.
No — centuries were not an exaggeration; these nets take about 600–800 years to decompose and thus become a death sentence for countless creatures that get caught in them. They are no longer made of degradable materials such as hemp and sisal, but of durable synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyethylene. Therefore, they need eternities to decompose.
The Problem
Have you heard of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”? Well, it’s in the North Pacific and it’s 4.5 times as big as Germany and 46% of it consists of fishing nets. But not only in the North Pacific, but in all other oceans and seas the nets drift, polluting the oceans and marine animals as microplastics. In the Baltic Sea alone, up to 10,000 nets are lost annually, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In total, about 10 million tons of plastic end up in the world’s oceans every year, of which between 30–50% are fishing nets. Countless fish, up to one million seabirds and a hundred thousand whales, dolphins and seals die in the nets’ catches every year.
They get caught in the meshes of the net walls, which are often invisible to them in the darkness of the sea. Thus, they die an agonizing and senseless death.
Their carcasses often attract large marine animals, which then devour the whole net. A sad example of such a case is the 13 sperm whales that stranded in the North Sea in 2016: their bodies contained huge amounts of plastic; one whale contained, among other things, a 13-meter-long fishing net. Although the whales died of cardiovascular failure, some of them would have sooner or later died of the plastic which they could not digest.
Especially in southern countries fishing nets are intentionally disposed of in the sea up until today. In the case of illegal fishing, the fishermen simply sink their nets into the water when they feel there is a danger of being caught.
The solution: Bracenet
Bracenet has taken the knowledge about these terrible conditions to heart and has made it its mission to get the ghost nets out of the oceans and to intercept fishing nets before they become ghost nets, so that this problem does not even arise in the future. The recovered nets are cleaned and then handcrafted into bracelets, the so-called Bracenets. Each bracelet thus consists of a real piece of fishing net.
With the help of the three partner organizations Ghost Diving, Healthy Seas and Nofir, they are pushing forward the retrieval of ghost nets.
Ghost Diving and Healthy Seas are organizations that have taken up the fight against ghost nets and cleanse the seas of garbage in order to save marine life and protect ecosystems. Both organizations recover ghost nets from the seas and then hand them over to Nofir for cleaning.
The Norwegian company Nofir has developed a nationwide system for collecting and processing discarded equipment from fisheries: Fishing companies thus give their old, no longer needed equipment to Nofir for recycling, giving the material a new life. In total, they have already recycled over 40,000 tons of old fishing equipment. In cooperation with Bracenet, they clean the salvaged fishing nets and then pass them on for further processing.
And then?
Once the nets have been cleaned and sorted, they go to Bracenet’s production facility in Hamburg. There they are transformed into bracenets, dog leashes, keychains and other products by hand. Each product is unique, because the nets are used in their original shape and color.
But the products are more than just beautiful and colorful: they are a statement and make a statement. A statement for the protection of the oceans and an awareness of the horrible conditions that prevail in the depths of the world’s oceans.
Save the Seas. Wear a net — because with every Bracenet and every product from the store there is one less piece of ghost net in the sea and the sea creatures get a chance for another life.
Bracenet also gives presentations, lectures and participates in panel discussions to share their knowledge, bring concrete solutions and suggest ideas on how to act to save the seas.
The message
“Each and every one of us can make a positive contribution to sustainability, and so we are fighting for a better world together.”
