190 tonnes of marine litter, including old nets, plastic and wood, was taken from the sea by Irish fishermen last year.
233 vessels from are now involved in the voluntary 'Fishing for Litter' scheme, which then sorts and recycles the rubbish where possible.
95 per cent of the trawlers that fish from Ireland's 12 main fishing ports are now signed up to the BIM initiative. In total, 422 tonnes of debris has been collected since the programme began in 2015.
Kilmore Quay took in the most litter in 2019 at 35 tonnes, followed by Castletownbere and then Dunmore East.
Howth is the only Dublin port involved. 14 trawlers, with a combined crew of 67, took in 16 tonnes of debris in 2019.
Some of the 190 tonnes of marine litter taken from the sea by Irish fishermen last year #fishingforlitter @BordIascMhara more on @98FM pic.twitter.com/2CW9h2KgQC
— Emma Tyrrell (Ní Riain) (@EmmaNiRiain) January 22, 2020
Tyres, road signs, trees and even wheelie bins are some of the more unusual items that have been brought up in nets.
Catherine Barrett works for Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Ireland's State Agency for the seafood sector, which runs the programme;
"So fishing for litter is effectively a retrieval programme of marine litter from the marine environment. This marine litter would be on the seabed, which makes the fishermen quite unique in accessing this marine litter that's on the bottom."
