Ghost Nets

Ghost nets are often called the silent killers of the ocean. These lost nets continue to fish and trap wildlife long after their commercial use. They can get lost in mangroves, pile up on the coast and smother coral reefs. It is estimated that roughly 650,000-700,000 tonnes of fishing nets are lost every year.

So how do they get lost in the ocean? Nets can get lost in big storms, break off from vessels or simply not be found by the fishermen that left them, perhaps forgotten. But sometimes they're deliberately lost, often due to illegal fishing activities. As we saw in the Sea of Shadows some poachers will drop their nets when approached by law enforcers. So why is it such a big deal? The nets are made of tough synthetic materials that do not break down and will float around catching wildlife for decades.

An estimated 100,000 animals are damaged, strangled or killed by ghostnets yearly. With trapped wildlife in these nets, it can attract other wildlife scavenging for food, and it becomes a vicious cycle of entanglement.

Moreover, huge trawling nets accidentally catch dolphins, whales, turtles and seals, which are simply discarded as bycatch. Bycatch is a huge problem as many non-targeted species are endangered, or near extinction like the vaquita porpoise.

However, there are solutions out there. Many programmes collaborate with local fishers to recover lost nets, and send them to recycling companies. It creates new jobs, and provides locals with an economical safety net (pun intended).

It needs to become economically unsustainable to lose these fishing nets, and economically profitable to track them and pull them up again. Let's put pressure on our governments and fisheries, and encourage net retrieval programmes. Interested in learning more about this issue and do you want to get involved?

Check out https://www.ghostgear.org/ and

https://www.zsl.org/conservation/regions/asia/net-works

If you still eat fish we suggest you check out the GoodFishGuide provided by the Marine Conservation Society of Scotland to ensure you're buying the more sustainable options.

Sources: National Geographic and The Dodo. Image: thedodo.com