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Map of Koh Tao indicating the survey sites. For names of localities, see Table 1.

Map of Koh Tao indicating the survey sites. For names of localities, see Table 1.

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Article
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Most lost fishing gear is made of non-biodegradable plastics that may sink to the sea floor or drift around in currents. It may remain unnoticed until it shows up on coral reefs, beaches and in other coastal habitats. Stony corals have fragile skeletons and soft tissues that can easily become damaged when they get in contact with lost fishing gear....

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Context 1
... highest numbers of corals (Table 3: Un + Ad + On) were found in the proximity of nets (n = 1886), followed by nylon lines (n = 288), ropes (n = 157), and cages (n = 26). Among these, corals observed Table 1 Numbers of fishing gear items found per category at each site surveyed in Koh Tao ( Fig. 1) with maximum observation depths (-= 0). around the fishing gear (controls) formed the majority (Ad, n = 1544), followed by corals on top (On, n = 410) and corals underneath (Un, n = ...
Context 2
... work was carried out from 8 February to 2 May 2011 during four snorkeling surveys and 97 SCUBA dives of approximately 1 h each and a maximum depth of 30 m at 21 sites around Koh Tao and three offshore pinnacles (Fig. ...

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... Fishing nets are often called "Ghost nets" as they are responsible for catching and killing an important number of marine animals (Stelfox et al., 2016). The lost and discarded fishing gears have an intensive effect on reef coral by causing tissue fragmentation and loss (Valderrama Ballesteros et al., 2018). Plastic debris can affect reefs by crushing and breaking off or smothering choral pieces. ...
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The increasing volume of plastic waste and the widespread use of plastic products pose significant challenges to the effectiveness of strategies, policies, and management projects aimed at combating ocean plastic pollution. Three billion people's livelihoods depend on marine and coastal resources, and the market value of these resources and related blue industries is estimated at US$3 trillion annually, which is about 5% of global GDP. Plastics make up around 80% of the total waste discarded in the ocean, and each year, over 13 million metric tons of plastic enter the marine environment threatening biodiversity and affecting ecosystem services upon which the economy of coastal countries depends. This paper explores the impact of plastic waste on understudied marine and coastal ecosystem services, utilizing the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment framework as a guide. This study reveals that prioritizing the assessment and study of supporting services is critical for maintaining and sustaining other services. This review provides data on the impact of plastic on marine ecosystem services and highlights the need for effective plastic waste management to sustain these services. Coordinated global actions and initiatives among regions, nations, and industries remain crucial steps in addressing and tackling plastic pollution in the ocean.
... This increase in sea level will especially have an impact on low lying islands, such as those populated throughout the Indo-Pacific regions, which face an increased risk of flooding, or disappearing altogether. Coupled with overfishing and other destructive fishing practices, communities who rely on these reefs could be facing extreme uncertainty for their future (Ballesteros et al., 2018;Bejarano et al., 2019;Teichberg et al., 2018). Furthermore, other more intensively studied regions all have their own varying accretion regimes, and major influencing factors cannot be directly applied from one locality/ region to the next. ...
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... Arctic terns (Sterna paradisaea) tend to become entangled in fishing nets, mostly likely impeding hunting and foraging success, leading to starvation [12]. Corals and seagrass are covered with discarded fishing gear [13][14][15]. The associated microplastic pollution was further found to reduce the photosynthetic capabilities of specific coral species [16]. ...
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... Lost fishing gear (i.e., synthetic nets and lines) can be a typical macroplastic in coral reefs (Mulochau et al., 2020), affecting reef corals by shading or breaking off branches (Mueller and Schupp, 2020;Valderrama Ballesteros et al., 2018;Ying et al., 2021). ...
... The consequences for an animal entangled in a fishing net or line are severe: limitations of movements, suffocation, and injuries which can lead to death by starvation or by a predator [33]. No marine species seems to be protected from these ghosts as it affects birds [34], [35], mammals [11], [36], [37], corals [38], [39], and fish [39]. They are also known to drift into MPAs, threatening protected ecosystems and disrupting conservation efforts. ...
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Local coir rope production utilises waste from copra cultivation and could provide a natural alternative to synthetic ropes in French Polynesia’s pearl farming industry. This research aimed to enhance the understanding of coir rope production for pearl farming in the region. Initially, the mechanical properties of coconut fibres were analysed, as well as the construc- tion of ropes made from these fibres. To determine the impact of retting on the mechanical properties of ropes and to assess the relevance of this process, ropes with different retting times in seawater and/or freshwater were tested. A life cycle analysis was also conducted to compare the benefits of locally producing a coir fibre rope versus importing a commercial HDPE rope. Results showed that retting did not significantly affect rope mechanical prop- erties, this polluting process could then be avoided. However, the braiding processes used to make the ropes was proven to influence both mechanical properties and water resistance. It should then be optimised to have coir ropes with higher strength and mechanical properties retention in water, which would also improve their environmental performance, and make them suitable for use as ropes in pearl farming in French Polynesia.
... Seabirds become entangled in debris both on shore and at sea and some are known to incorporate debris as nesting material with associated adult and nestling mortality (30). Effects on corals from derelict fishing gear include tissue damage, breakage, susceptibility to infection and algal overgrowth, and polyp and colony mortality (31)(32)(33)(34)(35). Coral reefs in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands damaged by abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear show significant changes to benthic functional groups with substantially more bare substrate and less living coral and algal cover (23,36). ...
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Abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear causes harm to marine species and ecosystems. To mitigate the destruction wrought by this ocean plastic debris, various cleanup programs have been established, though to our knowledge the benefits of such efforts to marine species and ecosystems have not yet been empirically demonstrated. We examined more than 40 years of Hawaiian monk seal marine debris entanglement records before and after large-scale marine debris removal efforts were initiated in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, demonstrating a substantial reduction in entanglement rates where debris removal effort was most concentrated. Large-scale and sustained removal of abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear meaningfully benefits marine ecosystems and has the potential to be transformational in restoration efforts.
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... However, the degree to which this occurred may not necessarily have been quantified [20]. The fisheries industry is known to pollute the marine environment, such as due to the use of old and outdated equipment that breaks and is lost at sea [21][22][23] and thus should not be exempt from this kind of tax (they could also be taxed for unacceptable bycatch of non-targeted species). The proceeds from these taxes could then be used to reverse the degradation and further improve the environment or intensify the ecosystem service these areas provide to fisheries [20]. ...
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This study reviews various financing solutions available for fisheries and aquaculture development in Caribbean small island developing states (SIDS) and Barbados, Grenada, and St. Vin-cent and the Grenadines. Previously identified financing needs within the fisheries and aquaculture sectors have been matched with the most suitable financing mechanisms. However, the use of blue levies is recommended and applicable in almost every scenario, as they allow these sectors to drive their own development in financing research and conservation projects to their own benefit. The use of "blue tokens" with sufficiently low repayment coupons allows development projects to gather public support for fisheries, thereby increasing the likelihood of the project being successful through community buy-in. The possibility of natural capital being traded as public equities as "Natural Asset Companies" provides the opportunity for development projects to fund themselves. The review concludes that natural capital can be leveraged as the base through which public-private partnerships (PPPs) can facilitate optimal delivery of ecosystem services, benefit multiple stakeholders, and provide numerous development opportunities. An enabling environment for debt and lending with low-interest loan repayments is also applicable to almost every scenario, as it facilitates access to capital finance for infrastructure development and the acquisition of increasingly sustainable fishing equipment. Steps towards generating an enabling environment for financing fisheries and aquaculture in the Caribbean region are also discussed. The establishment of dedicated financing institutions, PPPs, and sufficient data reporting infrastructure for the fisheries and aquaculture industry are essential for driving development in these sectors. Likely, the largest limiting factor in financing Caribbean fisheries and aquaculture industries is a lack of awareness of the range of finance and financing mechanisms available to stakeholders, as well as an enabling environment for financing blue Economy sectors. This review is thus intended to aid financing institutions, Blue Economy developers , and specifically Caribbean fisheries and aquaculture stakeholders and Caribbean governments by raising awareness of the financing mechanisms available, encourage the incorporation of their use in the fisheries and aquaculture industries in the Caribbean, and encourage policymakers to create an enabling environment for financing development in these crucial sectors. Key Contribution: Review and matching of the most suitable finance and financing solutions to previously identified development needs for the fisheries and aquaculture sectors of Caribbean Island States. Their associated implementation and necessary structures for incentivizing their use through an enabling environment are also discussed.