Data on lost gear reporting
In Canada, it is mandatory for all commercial harvesters to report their lost fishing gear to Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Lost gear reporting helps the Department and our partners locate and remove lost gear from Canadian waters and, in many cases, return the gear to its rightful owner. Lost gear reporting data also helps the Department to better target areas for ghost gear retrieval activities and find solutions to help prevent gear-loss in the future.
Lost gear reporting became mandatory in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 2018, and in all other areas in 2020. Fisheries and Oceans Canada is working with harvesters across the country to educate them on the new reporting requirements.
Map A: Map displaying the locations of lost gear reports submitted to DFO (red dots) and the locations of ghost gear retrieval operations (green dots) on Canada’s Atlantic coast since 2020.
Note: Each lost gear report (red dot) and each gear retrieval operation (green dot) may include multiple units of gear.
Map B: Map displaying the locations of lost gear reports submitted to DFO (red dots) and the locations of ghost gear retrieval operations (green dots) on Canada’s Pacific coast since 2020.
Note: Each lost gear report (red dot) and each gear retrieval operation (green dot) may include multiple units of gear.
Lost and retrieved gear in 2020-2023
This table displays the number of lost gear reports submitted to DFO, the percentage of lost gear reports submitted to DFO, the number of gear units reported lost, and the number of gear units retrieved for each DFO Region from 2020-2023.
| Region | Number of lost gear reports | Percentage of lost gear reports | Number of gear units reported lost | Number of gear units retrieved* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 171 | 1.1% | 2,631 | 1,198 |
| Gulf | 4,544 | 29.8% | 12,047 | 4,458 |
| Maritimes | 3,340 | 21.9% | 15,106 | 14,224 |
| Quebec | 7,099 | 46.5% | 27,056 | 594 |
| Pacific | 106 | 0.7% | 1,249 | 3,834 |
| Arctic | 4 | 0.0% | 59 | - |
| Ontario & Prairies | - | - | - | - |
| Total | 15,264 | 100% | 58,148 | 24,308 |
*Excludes units of rope and buoy
Percentage of lost gear reports submitted by fishery in 2020-2023:Footnote *
- Lobster – 72%
- Crab – 27%
- Groundfish – 0.5%
- Northern Shrimp – 0%
- Prawn – 0%
- Herring and mackerel – 0%
- Other- 0.5%
- Date modified: