Dictionary of Ichthyology
drift net = an unanchored gill net floating free with water currents or attached to a boat. Lost drift nets continue to catch and kill fish and marine mammals (called "walls of death") and large ones (50 km large scale pelagic driftnets) have been curtailed or banned on the high seas since 1991 by the Wellington Driftnet Convention and the 1993 UN General Assembly moratorium on large-scale drift nets. Also called drift gill net.