Fishery Improvement Projects

Blue Water Fishermen’s Association

The primary goal of BWFA is to advance the conservation and management of Highly Migratory Specie (HMS) fisheries, the biological understanding of sea turtles, marine mammals and HMS fishery resources, and the reduction of bycatch and bycatch mortality.

Gulf of Maine Research Institute Blue Mussel FIP

This is a FIP project that we are funding in partnership with GMRI and processors/harvesters of Wild Mussels to sustain the future of the wild stock in Maine which the Department of Maine Resources dos not currently manage. The project provides digital measurement tools to help these businesses quickly and accurately record crucial data while on the water. Their data will help us ask and answer questions about mussel distribution, population size, climate change resiliency, and more.

Global Ghost Gear Initiative via Sea Pact

Through EFC’s association with Seapact, we are supporting a Global Ghost Gear Initiative with the main purpose of the coalition to clean up the oceans of abandoned gear, pots, nets, etc. Ghost gear is lost or abandoned fishing equipment and is one of the biggest threats to our oceans with at least 640,000 tonnes of fishing gear entering our oceans every year. The Global Ghost Gear Initiative (GGGI) is the leading global platform tackling this issue, and we as a group are inspired by the successful development of solution projects around the world that are delivering tangible results for our oceans.

As a pre-competitive business collaboration and industry leadership platform, Sea Pact is the first organization of its kind to join the Global Ghost Gear Initiative. The overall goal is to improve the health of marine ecosystems, to safeguard human health and livelihoods and to protect marine animals from harm.