The Swedish-founded animal and nature organization The Perfect World Foundation wants to put an end to the unnecessary extermination of marine stocks caused by ghost fishing gear. Together with H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco launched the organization’s new ocean project on 5 May 2022 in connection with the prince’s visit to Sweden.
Ragnhild Jacobsson is originally from Norway, grew up north of the Arctic Circle surrounded by humpback whales and killer whales but moved to Sweden as an 11-year-old. Today, she is managing director and co-founder of the Swedish charity The Perfect World Foundation. The organization was founded after she and her husband Lars traveled the world for several years and had the opportunity to look behind the scenes at many of the world’s paradises and holiday resorts, where you unfortunately find everything from the deforestation of our beautiful and vital rainforests to terrible poaching and extermination of biological diversity both on land and in our seas.
Ragnhild Jacobsson is originally from Norway, grew up north of the Arctic Circle surrounded by humpback whales and killer whales but moved to Sweden as an 11-year-old. Today, she is managing director and co-founder of the Swedish charity The Perfect World Foundation. The organization was founded after she and her husband Lars traveled the world for several years and had the opportunity to look behind the scenes at many of the world’s paradises and holiday resorts, where you unfortunately find everything from the deforestation of our beautiful and vital rainforests to terrible poaching and extermination of biological diversity both on land and in our seas.
– That’s when we decided to found our organization with the aim of spreading knowledge about what really happens to our wild animals and nature to all those who don’t have the opportunity to experience nature up close. Give people who may live in cities better insight into what is actually going on and thus create more opportunities to influence in different ways, says Ragnhild.
The Jacobssons have been active in conservation issues since the early 2000s, but the organization with its 90 accounts only officially founded in 2010. Over the years, they have organized charity galas to raise money that is used to support various animal and nature conservation projects around the world. In 2014, when the organization organized its first major fundraising gala, it was visited by, among others, Crown Princess Victoria. In connection with its annual charity galas, the organization also awards what is today considered one of the world’s most prestigious prizes in animal and nature conservation – The Perfect World Foundation Award. The galas have been attended by many famous guests and over the years the honorary prize has been awarded to, among others, David Attenborough, Jane Goodall and Greta Thunberg, this year the prize was awarded to Prince Albert II of Monaco.
During the lobster fishery on the West Coast, according to information, approximately 3,000 lobster tins are lost each year. A lobster spawn can remain on the bottom and “ghost fish” for up to 100 years before collapsing, and each lost spawn is estimated to kill at least three lobsters per year (and scores of crabs). Assume that 3,000 tins are lost each year over a hundred-year period, that would mean that the ocean floor would eventually be filled with 300,000 ghost-fishing lobster tins. And if each of those tins were to ghost fish three lobsters, we’re approaching a million lobsters being killed unnecessarily every year… on the West Coast alone.
The Perfect World Foundation’s “Project Ocean” aims to increase knowledge about the ghost fishing problem with the aim of preventing more fishing gear from being lost and creating opportunities to locate, salvage and recycle already lost nets and fishing equipment that litter, spread microplastics and ghost fish in our sea. In this work, the organization has entered into a collaboration with Sweden’s first Marine Recycling Centre, to jointly find new solutions for recycling and reuse.
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