There has been a public awareness

of the health of the ocean

and fishermen are as concerned about that

as any member of the general public.

Fishermen want to do the right thing.

My name is Catherine Barret

and I work with BIM,

Ireland's seafood development agency.

From the get go, Fishing for litter is a voluntary activity.

"If you see litter, can you bring it ashore",

that is where we started in 2015 and the

industry participation and support was there.

Boats are provided with bags,

they bring the bags ashore.

We have clear instruction on

what goes into the bag and

what doesn't go into the bag.

Fishing for litter provides an infrastructure

to allow that's disposed of responsibly.

There's many many people required

to actually make Fishing for litter work.

We need the fishermen doing their part,

we need the harbour, the cooperative

brings the bags to the boats

that's a very important part.

The industry themselves are helping to

critically think about how

we can do things better

for waste management

so we can actually reduce marine litter

as a source, as well as retrieve it

from other pathways.

Fishing for litter is acting as a catalyst

to help change, help change in the mindset

to think critically where are the sources

of litter coming from, what are the pathways

into the marine environment.

With the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund

we've done waste characterization of the litter,

of the galley waste.

We fund the Fishing for litter bags.

The European Maritime and Fisheries Fund

allows us to explore with the industry

what they need to change,

or to maintain that change

for the longer term.

Another catalyst for Fishing For Litter

is that fishermen actually want

to engage with the public to tell their story.

So it's been another avenue for change

to open that conversation with the public

and with the wider community

both locally, nationally and internationally

towards what they're doing to reduce

marine litter in the environment.