In the land of fishermen, he who has a net is king. But those who have lost one can now retrieve it, thanks to the work carried out under the NETTAG+ initiative. Following the completion of the project and several demonstrations involving the IRIS autonomous vehicle, the initiative has just won the Atlantic-WestMED Project Award 2026.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), at least 10% of all marine litter is estimated to originate from fishing activities, namely “ghost” gear: abandoned, lost or discarded fishing equipment such as nets, lines and traps. In the European Union alone, this figure rises to 27%, according to a study presented by the European Commission.
Faced with a real threat to the preservation of marine ecosystems and to the fishing industry itself, scientists, engineers and fishers joined forces to develop solutions to “prevent, avoid and mitigate” the spread of this type of marine litter.
This joint effort by several partners – including INESC TEC – has now led to an accolade: the Atlantic-WestMED Project Award 2026, in the Biodiversity, Healthy Oceans and Resilient Coasts category. The award recognises the contributions of the NETTAG+ project to tackling marine litter resulting from fishing activities along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts.
By combining innovative technologies, raising awareness and working closely with fishing communities, the initiative was able to develop practical solutions to prevent, mitigate and avoid the loss, abandonment and discarding of fishing gear.
The NETTAG+ team stressed that “this award belongs to the entire consortium and to all the fishers and partners who shared their knowledge and experience throughout the project”.
A final demonstration with eyes on the sea
Even before receiving this award, the final NETTAG+ project event had already showcased the results of three years of work involving 15 partners from seven countries – including INESC TEC, CIIMAR and the Associação Pró-Maior Segurança dos Homens e do Mar (APMSHM).
The programme began with a scientific workshop at the Vila do Conde Municipal Auditorium, where Alfredo Martins, INESC TEC researcher involved in the project, took part in two discussion panels on the technological solutions developed.
At the Póvoa de Varzim fishing port, APMSHM then hosted a final demonstration of a mission to locate and retrieve a “lost” piece of fishing gear. The mission involved not only the IRIS autonomous vehicle, but also INESC TEC’s research vessel, “Mar Profundo”.
From the laboratory to the port, from science to fishing tradition
Following the first NETTAG project, the “sequel”, NETTAG+, continued the work already carried out, presenting impactful solutions for the fishing industry. From training and awareness-raising activities for communities to the compilation of governance and fisheries policy recommendations, the project went beyond science and technology, addressing the social, economic and political concerns associated with fishing activities.
“NETTAG+ solutions focus not only on technologies to minimise the impact of fishing, or to mitigate and locate lost fishing gear, but also on activities that promote the role of fishers as guardians of the sea,” explained Alfredo Martins, senior researcher at INESC TEC involved in the project, which is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme.
“These technologies have a positive impact on the preservation of marine ecosystems by providing tools to support the mapping, detection and removal of marine litter. At the same time, the fishing communities have become more aware of their important role in promoting a healthy ocean,” added the researcher, who also teaches at the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP).
As part of the NETTAG+ initiative, INESC TEC was directly involved in developing the technological component, more specifically robotic solutions such as the IRIS autonomous vehicle. According to Alfredo Martins, the robot “can locate fishing gear in two ways”.
“The first is when it is used to locate fishing gear fitted with acoustic tracking identifiers, developed as part of the NETTAG and NETTAG+ projects.” According to the researcher, the tags (identification devices) make it possible to “tag fishing gear, enabling it to be located at a later stage”.
If the lost gear needs to be detected and retrieved, the IRIS autonomous vehicle comes into action, equipped with an “acoustic transponder [transmitter-receiver device], which can interrogate a given coded acoustic tag”. “Based on the response, which only replies to the code transmitted by IRIS, the distance to the tag can be determined. By carrying out multiple interrogations from different points, IRIS can determine the precise location of the tag” and, consequently, of the identified fishing net.
The second approach addresses scenarios in which the lost fishing gear has no acoustic identifiers, which is “the most common case”, said Alfredo Martins. In these situations, IRIS is equipped with an “imaging sonar that produces an acoustic image of the surrounding environment”: “This image is processed by artificial intelligence algorithms to detect and identify fishing gear,” explained the INESC TEC researcher.
In both situations, the fishing vessel travels to the designated location to retrieve the lost gear. Cooperation with fishers and other professionals in the sector is therefore essential.
Alfredo Martins emphasised that the technological solutions presented by the NETTAG+ team “were met with great enthusiasm”. “As part of the project, testing and validation missions were carried out with the participation of fishers in Portugal, Croatia, Italy and Spain,” he mentioned.
The acoustic detection systems developed “are already essential for identifying fishing resources and supporting fishing activities, particularly vessel navigation and operations”.
According to Alfredo Martins, some of the solutions “are already commercially available, such as the acoustic tags”. Others “still require industrialisation and technology transfer processes”, which the project team is currently considering.
