Now in its sixth year, Paul Watson Foundation UK's Ghostnet Campaign has consistently gone from strength to strength, recovering more abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG), otherwise known as Ghost Gear. Ghost Gear is incredibly harmful to marine wildlife as it continues to kill indiscriminately for decades unless recovered. 

Our Ghostnet Campaign started with a single small inflatable boat (RIB). We then progressed to two larger RIBs and switched locations from North Wales to Yorkshire/North Lincolnshire. We also stepped up to a larger dive boat, MV Spectre. Since moving to our base in Grimsby, we have become progressively more successful, recovering more and more ghost gear on every single dive. In one single trip recently we recovered over 2 tonnes of deadly ghost gear. 

We have recruited more volunteer divers and more crew than ever before and we are now pushing the limits of what is possible with our current setup. Spectre is a fantastic boat, but thanks to the hard work of our team, there just simply isn't enough room for all the recovered ghost gear. In addition, her slow speed means we have cleared almost all of the areas we can reach with each trip. We are hunting for a new larger, faster boat, but we need your help. By donating to this appeal, you will be helping us save more wildlife than ever before. By going faster and carrying more gear, we will be able to cover a huge area littered with ghost fishing gear and will be securing the ongoing campaign's success for many years. 

Donations to this appeal will go towards a new vessel. We will need much more than the £100k target set on this page, but we will be seeking match funding and other ways of getting to our overall target. Every penny will help and we are extremely grateful to all our supporters and donors for their assistance with this vital campaign. 

Clearing ghost gear saves the lives of all UK marine wildlife, from dolphins and porpoises, to sea birds, seals and smaller creatures such as crabs, lobsters and fish. All of these matter to the health of the oceans and in turn to our own health.  In the words of founder Paul Watson - "If The Ocean Dies, We Die".