KarunaNews Story

WWF Germany has embarked on a project to use AI in the ocean to track down ghost fishing gear and thus become a lasting force for ocean conservation. Lost fishing gear makes up around 30% of marine plastic waste, decomposing into smaller pieces and fibres and exacerbating microplastic pollution. WWF Germany is collaborating with Microsoft AI for Good Lab and Accenture to launch ghostnetzero.ai. "GhostNetZero is a powerful example of how AI can transform how we tackle environmental challenges,” said Thomas Knüwer, chief creative officer at Accenture Song ASG. “By replacing manual searches with an AI-driven, scalable process, we’re making ghost net detection faster and more effective than ever.” So far, WWF Germany has manually sifted through images captured by a side-scan sonar and recovered 26 tons of nets from the Baltic Sea.