Fisheries Rubbish

Following Gales of up to Force 10 we visited the beaches and looked through the washed up material. Many By-the-wind-sailors (Vellela vellela) and Goose Barnacles (which is what you'd expect after gales from the south-west) but also horrendous amounts of plastic debris of which we estimated that around 70% was of fishing origin. I'm interested to know if this is typical on a worldwide scale.

Paul are you after photographic evidence? I had an invigorating walk along Hurst Spit this morning, that's the bit that juts into the Western Solent near the Needles, plenty of debris as you say, in the main general rubbish, plastic bottles etc, very little in the way of fishing relayed material.