The total volume is almost impossible to quantify, there is no recording system. Gear may be lost by being snagged, entangled by storm or tide, dislodged by bad weather, damaged by trawls or towed away by other vessels or anchors. This has a significant cost to fishermen each year, both economically and in the stress caused by losing gear and the effort required to find and retrieve it. SAFEGEAR, a project by the Blue Marine Foundation (BLUE) set out to solve these challenges. We worked with the University of Plymouth Marine Biology and Ecology Research Centre (MBERC) to better understand the scale and cost of abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear. We worked with marine specialists Tecmarine and Onwa to develop a cost-effective sea-hardened beacon that fishermen could easily deploy. The Fishing Animateur conducted a trial with a cohort of fishermen in the south west, attaching SAFEGEAR AtoN (Aid to Navigation) beacons secured to Dhan poles attached to fishing gear. The gear was fished over a number of months and in different locations.