Most comprehensive study ever reveals deadly toll of discarded fishing gear 

Enough fishing line to stretch to the moon and back among ‘staggering’ lost gear drifting in oceans

A loggerhead turtle entangled in a ghost net in the Mediterranean Sea. Picture: Jordi Chias/WWF/PA

Enough commercial fishing line is left in the ocean each year to stretch to the moon and back, according to the most comprehensive study ever completed of lost fishing equipment.

The staggering amounts of lost gear, which includes 25 million pots and traps and 14 billion hooks, is likely having deadly consequences for marine life, one of the study’s authors said.