How it all began…!

Christina organized and participated in countless coastal clean ups over the past 6 years in the south of Portugal while getting more and more aware (and worried!) about the plastic pollution of our ocean. As a marine scientist she also had a strong focus in marine litter in her research. In 2018, she attended the International Conference on Marine Debris in San Diego and did an internship in a research group (that does great work in that field!) in the Azores to deepen her scientific understanding around plastic pollution of our ocean. While diving deeper into the topic as a researcher, Christina was missing hand-on, solution-oriented approaches.

During the coastal clean ups, Christina realized that often 70-80% of the plastic litter along the Portuguese coastline is related to fisheries (ropes, nets, styrofoam boxes, seafood traps). Parallell investigations on this topic on a scientific level enhanced her concern and flued the urge to act. Realizing that circular economies are a great short-term solution in environmental conservation: the idea of Fishing4Ghosts was born.

As the first try-out of the idea, Christina launched a Kickstarter campaign in April 2021. It was a great success and fully funded within 8 days. Of course, it encouraged her to continue!