Protecting ocean ecosystems and marine life from ghost nets with a plastic-tagging buoy’ Ghost nets are one of the most abundant macroplastics found on the ocean surface. They are the most lethal form of plastic marine debris, responsible for hundreds of thousands of marine animal deaths yearly. Removing ghost nets will significantly boost marine life and help restore ocean ecosystems. The current bottleneck is finding ghost nets, as it is a needle-in-a-haystack challenge and is cost intensive. Empa has developed an innovative buoy technology to tackle this challenge. Such freely-floating, GPS-enabled buoys can autonomously find, catch, and tag ghost nets at the ocean surface in a decentralized, nature-driven way, requiring fewer vessels, airborne technologies, and human resources. The buoys have been tested in the North Sea. The aim of the PROJECT is to develop the technology further and deploy it in the North Sea. This technology is a low-cost, sustainable way to help avoid loss of marine animals and protect ecosystems from plastic pollution.