MARGNET project

The 'marGnet' project focuses on marine litter (ML) from sea-based sources, precisely to the ML on the sea floor and especially on ML generated by the fisheries and aquaculture activities, including not only abandoned, accidentally lost and otherwise discarded fishing gears (ALDFG), but also all the litter that is generated by the on-board fish and ichthyic products management, such as Styrofoam boxes and other general waste produced during aquaculture activities as well as the ordinary waste related to the fisheries activities (exhausted nets and their components). In this scenario, the project sets up and tests multi-level solutions oriented to, on one hand, monitor and map and, on the other hand, prevent as well as remove and recycle ML from sea-based sources. It provides: 1) a fast methodology (based on large scale acoustic remote sensing) for wide scale mapping and monitoring of diffusion of marine litter on the sea floor (WP3 and WP5); 2) a prototype that exploits low temperature pyrolysis to transform the marine litter in an energy source at reasonable cost (WP4); 3) policy makers and institutions decision supporting tools and best experience to orient the policy making process (WP5). It acts on two pilot sites of North Adriatic sea (in IT and HR), ensuring nevertheless a strong replicability since it is possible to test the approaches and the methods provided by the project (with specific reference to fast methodology based on large scale acoustic remote sensing) in very different habitats (sandy seabed, rocky outcrops-tegnùe rocky seafloor) that are representative of the majority of the sea floor types of the European Seas. 'marGnet' is also relevant for its strong contribution to main EU policies and legislation in matter of marine protection and ML management, waste and circular economy as well as integrated maritime policy and port facility management.

Indeed, adopting a multilevel approach, 'marGnet' tackles the ML phenomenon from different points of view providing solutions that could be (and the project support for)

mainstreamed and up-taken at policy level. Lastly, exploiting the state of the art technologies, the 'marGnet' project develops pilot solutions with high demonstrative value

bringing them to operational scale.

1. National Research Council – Institute of Marine Sciences – CNR-ISMAR (Italy)

2 Laguna Project s.n.c (Italy)

3 Blue World Institute of Marine Research and Conservation - BWI (Croatia)

4 SINTOL srl (Italy)

5 Techneprojects srl (Italy)