Lost fishing equipment leads to marine litter, which in turn entails a risk of ghost fishing.

Parts of the fishing gear used by Lerøy Havfisk consist of plastic and plastic components. Lost fishing gear left on the seabed spoils the sea and cause death of wildlife caught in it through exhaustion and suffocation. Ever since the early 1980s, the Directorate of Fisheries has carried out annual clean-ups along the Norwegian coastline, to remove fishing gear from the seabed – an important measure to avoid fish and shellfish getting caught, or "ghost fishing" as it is called. Furthermore, this represents general marine pollution.

Read more: Ghost fishing

For the most part lost fishing gear or "ghost fishing" is represented by gillnets, a fishing gear not used by the Lerøy Havfisk fleet. Fortunately, it is not often that Lerøy Havfisk loses its fishing gear, but it has happened. Marine fisheries, including Lerøy Havfisk, are required by the Exercise Regulations to report lost gear to the Norwegian Coast Guard, and in recent years reporting has been further simplified through functions in the electronic catch log.

Lerøy Havfisk will continue to spend time searching for any lost fishing gear, and we most often succeed in finding and recovering lost fishing gear. This in turn represents reduced consumption and will at all times be included as part of the company's action plan for reduced plastic consumption (provided that fisheries, ropes, etc. contain plastic and plastic components).

In addition to production of Lump Sucker, the Group also buys wrasse from local fishermen. As part of our sustainability efforts, we have decided to demand two things from fishermen who supply Lump Sucker to us.

• The thread used in the fish traps must be made of decomposable material.
• Lost equipment must be reported to the Directorate of Fisheries.