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Science Festival cancelled but Into the Blue goes ahead
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The Science Festival, due to run from April 4 to 19, has been cancelled due to the corona virus. However the Into the Blue exhibition at Portobello Promenade is going ahead.
Into the Blue is a large scale outdoor photography exhibition taking visitors on a journey around Scotland's remarkable coastlines. It includes some of the weird and wonderful inhabitants of the world beneath the waves and explores the role seas and oceans play in our lives.
This pic is called Ghost Gear by Janeanne Gilchrist and shows free diver, Will Beeslaar untangling and removing abandoned fishing gear entangled in the seabed creatures in the North Sea off the Coast of East Lothian.
“Ghost nets” or “ghost gear” are fishing nets, lines and traps that are lost, abandoned or dumped in the oceans. Once discarded, they continue to catch fish and other marine life as they were designed to do, reducing commercial fish stocks and putting vulnerable species in danger.
It is a serious problem, which is made worse as the dying ensnared fish attract scavengers who also become tangled in the same net.
The scale of the problem is very difficult to measure, but in 2009 the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimated that 640,000 tonnes of fishing gear was lost or discarded in the seas over the course of one year.
Tackling the issue is a complex task, although advances in technology such as seabed imaging on fishing vessels and transmitters fitted to fishing gear can help prevent snagged nets being lost and assist fishers to retrieve them. Ghost gear is often lost undeliberately due to bad weather and terrain, so a “no-blame” approach is recommended by organisations leading the charge on solving the problem, with a focus on improving awareness and reporting and creating collection and recycling schemes instead.
Free, drop in, running until April 27, find it on Portobello Promenade between John Street and Laing Terrace. Visit www.sciencefestival.co.uk/event-details/into-the-blue