What is a Ghost Net?
Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been lost accidentally, deliberately discarded, or simply abandoned at sea. They travel the oceans of the world with the currents and tides continually fishing as they progress through the waters. As they are unattended and roaming, they fish indiscriminately, not only catching threatened species but undersized and protected fish as well.
What is the Carpentaria Ghost Net Programme?
Northern Australia supports an array of marine and coastal species including six of the worlds seven marine turtle species and four sawfish species, many of whose populations have declined elsewhere. Ghostnets are part of vast rafts of marine debris arriving from SE Asia that are fouling this otherwise pristine coastline, mostly owned and occupied by Indigenous peoples of Australia.
What is the good news?
The Carpentaria Ghost Nets Programme, an alliance of the 18 indigenous communities surrounding the Gulf of Carpentaria, was established in 2004. In the following four years the project achieved the removal of 5,243 ghost nets of varying sizes from approximately 1500km of coastline. This has resulted in recovery of a proportion of the trapped wildlife, particularly marine turtles (52%), and the prevention of the ghost nets from returning to the sea, continuing their destructing life-cycle. Less than 10% of these nets have been attributed to Australian fisheries.
This project is also enabling these Aboriginal communities to fulfil their aspirations to care for their sea country through building the skills and knowledge of the extensive network of indigenous rangers. It is assisting in the establishment of institutional frameworks and opening channels of communication between these communities on a scale that has never been experienced in Australia with a single project.
The programme has now expanded to include the coastline from the Torres Straits to the Kimberley region in NW Australia (click here to view the map) This expansion recognises that the problem is not confined to the Gulf of Carpentaria as first thought.
What difference can we make?
Ghost nets are just one example of marine debris. The United Nations Environment Programme recognises marine debris as “a dire, vast and growing threat to the marine and coastal environment”. Most of the debris is made up on man-made material which takes a very long time to break down – such as plastic. There are many ways to help:
Simplest ways:
1) If you see litter in the street or on the beach, pick it up and put it in a bin so that it does not go out to sea through our storm water drains.
2) Cut down on your plastic use wherever possible. Recycle shopping bags, or switch away from plastic bags altogether. Choose non-plastic packaging in the supermarket and refuse to buy items which use too much packaging. Take your own basket to the supermarket so you do not need bags at all!
Other ways:
Support campaigns which promote reduction in marine debris:
SOS Ocean Racing - A Sailing Campaign to raise awareness of the destruction plastic bags are doing to our environment. In April 2010 Ian Thomson will be sailing non stop solo unassisted around Australia to raise awareness for this cause.
Trash in its Place Please! – Every piece of plastic manufactured in the last 50 years that got into the ocean is still there somewhere, because there because plastics do NOT biodegrade.
Learn more and educate others:
The more you learn and tell others, the greater the global understanding of the issues that affect all of us. Ocean’s cover 70% of our planet. They are responsible for a tremendous amount of our oxygen production and food. They are important to all of us. You can learn more from the following websites:
United Nations Environment Program – Marine Litter
Work Locally:
How well is the stormwater in your local area filtered before it enters the ocean? In 1995 an Australian company patented a unique stormwater filtration system which cuts out a huge amount of the debris that would otherwise enter our ocean. This is one example of a solution that could be implemented locally to help reduce the amount of debris entering our oceans. There are many other solutions out there. Many local papers are happy to print news stories about local issues to raise awareness.
Australian Conservation Foundation