Drift net fishing is a fishing technique where nets, called drift nets, hang vertically in the water column without being anchored to the bottom. The nets are kept vertical in the water by floats attached to a rope along the top of the net and weights attached to another rope along the bottom of the net . Fish are cought when they become entangled in the netting. (Source: R. Caddell, Cought in the Net: Driftnet Fishing Restrictions and the European Court of Justice, Journal of Environmental Law, Oxford)

The use of fishing nets of great length and depth, aptly described as "walls of death" because of the huge numbers of marine mammals, birds, and turtles that became ensnared in them. The Tarawa Declaration of 1989 formulated at the 20th South Pacific Forum, aimed at banning drift netting in the South Pacific. In June 1992 the UN banned drift netting in all the world's oceans. (Source: GEMET/GILP96)