Fishing-Gear Takeback Mobilisation Leader

The mandate

Retired trawl nets, seine sections, ropes and traps have accumulated at several member ports after a contracted collector lost export capacity and two downstream recyclers rejected wet, fouled loads. Vessel owners dispute which gear is theirs, harbour stores contain cut sections without provenance, and recovered ghost gear arrives mixed with operational equipment. A port fire-safety notice and an unauthorised disposal episode forced immediate intervention. The circularity director has left; the interim takes operating command of the takeback mobilisation while harbour masters, vessel masters and competent environmental authorities retain their statutory powers.

The leader starts within fourteen days and serves nine months through fleet return, winter storage and contracted outlet reset. Days one through twenty isolate unsafe piles, protect usable gear from mistaken disposal, establish owner-or-custodian records and restore booked landing windows. By month four, each participating port must run declared intake, contamination triage, secure temporary storage, component salvage and lawful dispatch. Months five through seven qualify recovery outlets and test surge intake from a coordinated ghost-gear retrieval. The final two months prove the chain during recycler refusal and severe-weather transport interruption.

Handover is earned when the permanent leader has chaired eight weekly network reviews, every stored lot has accountable custody and a dated disposition, three ports operate within fire-load and access limits, and receiving partners accept four consecutive dispatch cycles without unexplained mass variance. The successor receives owner disputes, contaminated lots, reusable floats and hardware, polymer and metal routes, export dependencies, outlet economics, incident history, port-capacity triggers and a ninety-day decision calendar. Recruitment begins in month two; the interim must coach the named successor through one live refusal and one emergency intake.

Within approved contracts and an ISK1.1 billion recovery envelope, the interim may close an unsafe intake area, cap daily receipt, direct lot segregation, reserve collection vehicles, allocate port storage, authorise approved cleaning, divert material among qualified domestic routes, suspend a collector, and commission independent weighing or sampling. New exports, material classification, destruction of disputed property, contract termination, capital equipment, expenditure above delegation or public environmental claims require legal, environmental, procurement or committee approval. Harbour masters control premises safety; vessel masters decide gear removal at sea.

Fishing effort, quota allocation, catch traceability, vessel maintenance and design of new gear are outside scope. Mobilisation cannot count a booked pickup as recovery, infer ownership from a vessel name alone, commingle ghost gear with attributed member property, dry or cut contaminated material without an approved method, or call exported mass recycled before downstream acceptance. The outcome is a defensible vessel-to-outlet chain that protects people and property, distinguishes component reuse from polymer or metal recovery, exposes residue and rejection, and can be run by permanent leadership without emergency judgement.

Why this seat is open

The failed collection contract revealed that the cooperative had measured gear leaving a quay rather than material reaching a lawful destination. Fire exposure, disputed custody and wet-load rejection now threaten port continuity and member trust. A senior operator is needed to create safe physical flow and credible mass evidence quickly, without taking environmental classification or maritime authority from the specialists who hold it.

What you will own

• Reconstruct each lot from vessel declaration or ghost-gear intake through landing window, ownership check, contamination assessment, weighing, storage position, component recovery, outbound load and receiving acceptance.
• Set port intake limits using fire compartment, vehicle access, weather exposure, drainage, safe handling, booked collections and the consequence of blocking working gear.
• Decide within delegation whether floats, weights, traps, shackles and rope sections enter controlled reuse, polymer or metal recovery, approved energy route or lawful residue disposal.
• Contract and sequence wet-load haulage, cleaning and qualified outlet capacity while retaining rejected loads, moisture adjustments, export delays and unexplained mass losses in the operating record.
• Resolve operational custody cases among members, ports and collectors through documented holds and escalation, never by destroying, selling or reallocating gear whose ownership remains disputed.
• Run physical port walks, weighbridge reconciliations, receiver observations and ghost-gear surge exercises that test the chain beyond collection certificates and carrier departure scans.
• Recruit and induct the permanent leader, transferring outlet failure playbooks, storage thresholds, member obligations, regulator interfaces, live disputes and the next seasonal capacity decisions.

Candidate qualifications

• Has held executive responsibility for fishing gear, marine waste, port reception facilities or another bulky and contamination-sensitive material takeback network.
• Can evidence recovery after a collector, recycler or export outlet failed while material continued arriving at constrained operating sites.
• Understands net and rope composition, reusable components, wet-load transport, fire loading, port storage, weighing, recycler specifications and cross-border recovery evidence.
• Has handled unidentified or disputed property without overriding vessel, harbour, environmental, customs or legal authority.
• Can distinguish intake mass, stored wet mass, prepared fraction, receiver-accepted material, reusable component, recovered polymer or metal and lawful residue.
• Has transferred an emergency circular-flow operation to permanent leadership after testing outlet refusal, severe weather and surge receipt.

Non-negotiables

• Can start in Reykjavik within fourteen days and rotate weekly among vessel berths, gear stores, harbour compounds and receiving partners.
• Will not assign quotas, command vessels, classify waste unilaterally, destroy disputed gear or certify environmental claims.
• Brings direct marine-material, port-reception or industrial takeback leadership; sustainability policy or seafood procurement alone is insufficient.
• Will report wet weight, contamination, reusable removal, rejected fraction, outlet acceptance and residue without presenting collected tonnes as recovered tonnes.

1. 49 words maximum. Which custody or contamination fact most changed your route for an end-of-life fishing-gear lot?
2. 49 words maximum. How did you keep a port safe when retired gear arrived faster than qualified outlets could receive it?
3. 49 words maximum. Confirm your Reykjavik start date and the largest marine-material takeback perimeter you have commanded.