Carpentaria Ghost Nets Programme
Issues
Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been discarded, abandoned at sea or lost accidently, and remain in the ocean moving around with currents and tides. The Ghost Nets continue to trap fish, including threatened species, undersized and protected fish until they are removed from the water.
Project Summary
The Carpentaria Ghosts Nets Programme (CGNP) was established in 2004 by Indigenous communities in the Torres Strait as a direct result of their concern over the amount of marine debris, in particular derelict fishing gear (ghost nets) found on their shores.
The region is extremely remote with little in the way of urban development, and is very special for Indigenous culture, heritage and biodiversity. Unfortunately the coastline is littered with ghost nets, most of which (95.4%) are found floating in on the currents and tides from outside Australian waters.
CGNP sought funding to remove decades of accumulation of ghost nets from coastlines along the eastern Arnhem Land and the western coast of Cape York to prevent them from getting washed back into the ocean and continuing their destructive life cycle.
They also wanted to collect useful information about the nets through categorising them using the WWF Net Kit. Funding would also provide for equipment needed to be used on site, including surveying tools (GPS, digital camera, data sheets etc), quad bikes and/or tractors to haul buried nets out of the sand, vehicles and PPE.
Funds will also contribute to the long term goals of building the skills and resilience of Indigenous rangers to ensure monitoring can occur to determine trends in ghost net occurrence.
CGNP completed a cleanup along the shoreline of Muralag Island in the Torres Strait. They used a donated ute for sections of the coast accessible by vehicle and a ranger’s dingy for remaining areas. They collected 150 nets over about 60km of coastline, and the measurements of these nets was recorded on data sheets.
The nets varied in size from 1 or 2 metres to 164.5m and had a combined length of 2131.3m. The nets were stockpiled for future removal. Some nets were difficult to remove due to being caught in mangroves in crocodile infested waters and have been left behind so they can concentrate on nets that are more likely to be washed back into the sea.
The group were also able to collect rubbish from beaches and mangroves during their collection of nets.
Photographs of Projects
Loading nets onto barge
Crocodile trapped in an Indonesian net
Removing a trapped net
Identifying net origin
