WHERE DO WE GET OUR FISHING NETS?

We upcycle old fishing nets into new products like our “Bracenet” bracelets. But where do we get all these fishing nets? And what’s the deal when we talk about “recovered ghost nets,” “discarded fishing nets,” or “former fishing nets”? Does a “North Sea Bracenet” really come from the North Sea? Can we trace the origin of all our nets?

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spendenübergabe healthy seas

Our Collected Donatoins

With BRACENET, you’re making a contribution to ocean conservation. More specifically, a double contribution: With every product, you help put an end to the menace of ghost nets and simultaneously donate towards the protection of the seas and marine life. We’re thrilled to announce our first major milestone: To date, we have collectively donated over a quarter of a million Euros – €250,558!

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How sustainable dive tourism can protect sharks

Protecting sharks through diving tourism sounds paradoxical at first. But it is a sustainable solution that can make a significant contribution to shark conservation. Dive into the world of sustainable shark tourism together with freediver and marine biologist Lennart Voßgätter.

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Blaues Bündel Dolly Ropes von Wellen an Strand gespült

Dolly Ropes – Material protection instead of environmental protection?

If you like to spend time along Germany’s North Sea coast, you will likely be well acquainted with weather, wind and waves. You’ll also be familiar with another sight: Small threads of plastic, mostly orange or blue, that have been washed ashore. These are so-called “dolly ropes”. They are used to protect fishing nets, but they endanger the environment. What can we do about it?

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sea-shepherd-spendenübergabe-bracenet

Sea Shepherd x Bracenet – Fighting for the Baltic Sea

The oceans are in danger: marine pollution, underwater noise, illegal fishing, and the consequences of the climate crisis threaten ecosystems and consequently our livelihoods. We have to do something about it! We believe that we can accomplish the biggest difference when we collaborate with other organizations and companies that share our mission. With this in mind, we are proud to fight alongside Sea Shepherd for the future of our oceans.

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Bracenet Rainbow II

Homosexuality among marine animals – Queer life underwater

Homosexual marine animals? Exactly! Aristotle reported about homosexual couples in the animal kingdom as early as 2300 years ago, and until today, homosexual behavior has been observed in about 1500 animal species. To celebrate Pride Month in June, we further researched the topic of homosexuality in marine animals.

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Interview with GOT BAG: Idea and Impact

We recover ghost nets from the oceans – and other great companies like GOT BAG fight against the other kinds of plastic waste in our seas. Now, we’re joining our focus with the Save the Seas Pack! We’ve interviewed GOT BAG for you to learn more about the background and impact of their backpacks.

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korallen-versauerung-der-ozeane

Ocean acidification and its consequences

The oceans cover ⅔ of our planet – they are so vast that they seem invulnerable. But through our work we know that they struggle with many problems, for instance ocean acidification. In this article, we tell you what this is and what it means for our oceans.

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The Bracenet Story

In 2015, Benjamin and Madeleine travelled to Tanzania and Zanzibar to relax and go diving. In addition to beautiful holiday memories, they also returned with the founding story of Bracenet. Read this article to learn how it all began and what we’ve achieved so far!

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outlaw-ocean-ian-urbina-gambia-sea-shepherd

Outlaw Ocean Series: Gambia & Sea Shepherd

We are excited to share the first of a series of articles from Ian Urbinas investigations with you! He explores how difficult it can be for some countries to monitor the health of their waters, including their fish stocks, and how challenging it can be to hold suspected perpetrators of illegal fishing practices accountable.

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The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier – Interview with Ian Urbina

Two-thirds of our world’s oceans fall outside any country’s jurisdiction: the High Seas. For his investigations of crime and abuse in this area of lawlessness, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist and author Ian Urbina travelled across the seas from the Southern Ocean to Somalia, resulting in five long years of dangerous endeavours. His book “The Outlaw Ocean” is a collection of stories from his investigations, personal experiences and interviews with people involved.

As Bracenet is endlessly working to protect the oceans from ghost nets and all of these problems at the High Seas are interconnected, we were eager to learn more. We were lucky to have the chance to talk with Ian Urbina.

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bracenet team pia und paula

Social sustainability requires equality.

Team BRACENET: Since our founding in 2016, we have grown to include 34 individuals, comprising 29 women and 5 men. Even our founding team maintained a healthy gender balance with 50% women, although unfortunately, this is not the norm. In 2018, two-thirds of all founders were male. In 2019, this trend slightly decreased, with an average of only about 1.7 male founders per female founder. Let’s take a closer look!

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How do we stop the flood of masks?

During the lockdown, we mostly stayed inside – but our rubbish still found its way out. Not only to waste processing plants or onto the compost, but also into nature. Masks are everywhere: they are found in parks and on beaches, are drifting through rivers and seas. Ghost nets are glad about their company – the environment, however, not so much.

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earth overshoot day

We are taking away from our future: Earth Overshoot Day 2020

The global Overshoot Day 2020 falls on August 22nd. Alarming? Yes – but the situation is even more dramatic in Germany, as our country Overshoot Day was already on May 3rd! It’s just that hardly anybody noticed it, since there were no activities on the day due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But what is Overshoot Day anyway?

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angeln nachhaltige fischerei

9 fish labels at a glance: Are they trustworthy?

Recently, we showed you why all our Bracenets look so different and explained the many types of fishing nets and fishing methods. This has left a few questions unanswered, which we now want to address: Can fishing be sustainable at all and are the various sustainability certification schemes credible?

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bracenet am handgelenk

4 Reasons why a Bracenet is better than no Bracenet

Have you been thinking about buying a (or another) Bracenet for a while? We too thoroughly consider everything before we buy a product, as we want to be confident about our decisions. Sustainability is not always straightforward and it is definitely worth asking questions.

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Bracenet Farben der Fischernetze

THE 101 OF FISHING NETS

When you browse through our shop, you will quickly notice that our products all look different: They come in varying colours, are thicker or thinner and sometimes have one, two, or even three knots. We are often asked whether we can offer additional colours, too. The answer – it depends! In this article we will explain you more about this.

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It's not easy being green

Sustainability: nobody is perfect

Once you step into the “eco-bubble”, you will soon be confronted with this sort of “eco-perfectionism”. But be assured: you don’t have to do everything at once to change something!

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bracenet team

Insight into the B-Team

You’ve probably asked yourself before who manufactures your Bracenets – at least when you finally held the lovingly wrapped, new Bracenet in your hands.
I’m Ann-Katrin and have joined the team in March as human resources manager. In this article, I will share with you my experience during the application process, how we interpret leadership, some insights into our team and what Bracenet stands for.

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Bracenet ist ein Upcycling-Produkt aus Geisternetzen

Recycling and Upcycling: An overview

Our products such as Bracenets, dog leashes and keychains are completely new – and yet they are made of used material. How does that fit together? The answer is simple: we upcycle recovered ghost nets that were originally intended for many years of fishing in harsh environments and are thus still suitable for daily use. In this article, we will take a closer look at upcycling, what the differences are to recycling, and why we choose to upcycle.

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Bracenet sucht Geisternetze bei Nofir aus

Nofir – Preparing nets for recycling and upcycling

When we recover ghost nets with Healthy Seas and Ghost Diving, we are not looking for the colourful and beautiful nets you know from our products. For now, they are still dirty and covered with seaweed! Only after our partner Nofir has cleaned them in an environmentally friendly process, will they regain their many colours. Nofir makes an invaluable contribution to the fight against ghost nets and in this article, we want to tell you more about their work.

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bracenet ghost diving

GHOST DIVING’S GHOST DIVERS DIVING FOR GHOST NETS

We produce by hand – from the very beginning, as even the ghost nets for our products are retrieved by hand (and fins): Our partners at Ghost Diving (previously Ghost Fishing) have taken it upon themselves to free the seas from the haunt of the nets. The experienced, voluntary technical divers recover ghost nets from depths of up to 50 meters and save countless marine animals in the process.

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Bracenet besucht Lebenshilfewerk Neumünster

Our close partnership with the Lebenshilfewerk Neumünster

Since December 2016, we have been collaborating with the Lebenshilfewerk Neumünster (LHW). Time flies! This is a good moment to pause and reflect: These were three years of partnership, three years of joint progress and three years of support and product innovation – for LHW not only assists us in producing Bracenets, but also in developing new products.

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fashion revolution week

Fashion Revolution Week

Fashion Revolution campaigns for a world where the fashion industry values people, the environment, creativity and profit equally and where we know the faces behind our clothes and jewellery. As part of Fashion Revolution Week, our founders Madeleine and Benjamin will go live on Instagram for a Q&A.

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Global Ghost Gear Initiative: A Community Against Ghost Nets

We can only achieve far-reaching changes and effectively implement preventive measures if everyone is pulling in the same direction. This is why we have now joined the GGGI – in order to participate in a global network and fight the issue of ghost nets with partners from all over the world. The GGGI brings together business, science, NGOs and politics – and thus offers a unique forum for saving the oceans through global cooperation.

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Bridge&Tunnel Jeans

Bracenet and Bridge&Tunnel- Cooperation

Sustainable upcycling with local and fair production, has belonged to our main mission at Bracenet since the start. Now, we have roped together a collaboration with Hamburg label Bridge&Tunnel, who share these same values.

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Geisternetze bergen mit Healthy Seas

HEALTHY SEAS AND GHOST NET RECOVERY

We have been collaborating with Healthy Seas since 2016 to recover ghost nets from the oceans and to prevent more nets from ending up at sea. Additionally, we donate 10 % of the proceeds of our products to Healthy Seas – and you are probably eager to learn how your contribution helps to fight the ghost nets.

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ghost net retrieval

5 Facts you should know about Ghost Nets

Our products like the Bracenets and dog leashes are made out of ghost nets, as you have probably noticed. But what are ghost nets, why are they a problem and why do we use them to create new products? In this article, we will answer these questions in five points.

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About us

The coast of Africa did not only confront us with beautiful seaside in 2015 but with nets floating in the water. Lost or discarded fishing nets are one of the biggest dangers to marine life. To raise awareness, we create something new out of these ghost nets. With Bracenet we take on responsibility and make a contribution to marine protection. We can not recover every net on our own and prevent ghost gear. But with the help our partners as well as the close collaboration with science, politics, businesses and with the support of people, who are carrying our mission, we approach our goal.