ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Conservation and Sustainability
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1656784
A field-based framework for evaluating sustainable fishing gear in small-scale Plesionika edwardsii fisheries
Provisionally accepted
Eleonora Monfardini1,2*
Laura Ciaralli2,3
Barbara Catalano2
Gianluca Franceschini2Camilla Antonini2
BENEDETTA TRABUCCO2
Bianca Di Lorenzo2Maria Grazia Finoia2Ornella Nonnis2- 1Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
- 2Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, Rome, Italy
- 3Universita degli Studi di Napoli Federico II Dipartimento di Biologia, Naples, Italy
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Plastic pollution at sea is a critical global issue, but despite legislative requirements, scant information is available for the ongoing assessment of this threat. Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) significantly contribute to marine litter, ghost fishing, and ecosystem degradation. A multidisciplinary research effort, carried out in collaboration with small-scale fishers, introduced a new methodological approach, implementing sustainable and biodegradable fishing gear. This approach combined experimental field trials with performance monitoring to test pot nets lined with biodegradable and compostable material prototypes, used in artisanal fisheries targeting Plesionika edwardsii. According to our results, these alternative materials deliver artisanal performance comparable to that of traditional plastics, including fishing efficacy, while reducing environmental impact. Early-stage trials indicated that biodegradable pots, while requiring further refinement for effective use in fishing, represent a viable option for reducing ghost fishing and plastic pollution, supporting biodiversity conservation. This work demonstrates a replicable framework for testing and validating sustainable fishing gear under real-world conditions, supporting evidence-based decisions in marine resource management.
Keywords: Pot nets, biodegradable materials, Artisanal fisheries, Plastic pollution, sustainability
Received: 30 Jun 2025; Accepted: 02 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Monfardini, Ciaralli, Catalano, Franceschini, Antonini, TRABUCCO, Di Lorenzo, Finoia and Nonnis. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Eleonora Monfardini, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.