Ghost Nets Kill Marine Life

A Devastating Story of Illegal Fishing Nets Impact

Its puzzling, even ironic that people who literally survive by working the sea, seem to have so little respect or consideration for protecting it

WARNING: This article contains graphic images of DEAD endangered Sea turtles you may not want to view the images.

Ive been a scuba diver now for over two decades and my experience underwater has been one of the most enlightening expereinces of my life. Ive seen another world, literally. None divers cant begin to imagine the vast beauty thats just below them and further more, how it vitiall importent to our own survial as a species.

Ghost Nets / Lost Fishing Nets

Lost or abandoned fishing gear is problematic in our oceans, with an estimated 640,000 Tonnes lost into the sea globally each year.

Ghost Nets are lost nets, the catch is never landed and the trapped animals act as bait for others, in a non-stop cycle of wasteful deaths known as Ghost Fishing.

Lost Fishing Nets are nets that have been left and abandoned in the ocean by fishermen after they become snagged or lost. on this occasion, the latter came to our local dive community where I huge net was snagging almost 100m of coral reef.

Once below the waves, this net was out of sight and out of mind for most humans. Certainly, for those who discarded them in the first place. Thankfully, I don’t find too many of them, but this one was particularly shocking.

A multitude of reasons could explain how this occurred... The fisherman couldn’t help getting it caught, the net washed overboard during a storm, the fishermen were in an illegal area and had to leave in haste abandoning their nets...

None of these reasons amount to much however when compared to the devastation these abandoned nets have on our oceans, coral reef, and the aquatic world as a whole.

Scuba diver removed Abandoned fishing net

Contemplation and Reconciliation

After gathering what we could in the time we had we had given it our best effort. I was left contemplating the hows and whys of this situation.

Obviously, a local fisherman had dropped the net for an easy catch in the shallows close to the island. Got it snagged and since it was illegal he wasn’t going to report it, nor care about the net since they are relatively cheap to replace.

I try and remind myself that the local fisherman, most likely had no idea that below the surface was prominent areas for an endangered species such as the Hawksbill Sea Turtle and other aquatic life.

I know many of the local fishing community, these people live off the sea, like anyone, I’m sure they would mean no harm and it was in many ways simply a careless act. There is no way to stop people fishing, nor would I want to. so for me, this has to be an education issue. If people had the level of understanding of our aquatic world, perhaps they would think twice.

Like I said at the beginning, as a scuba diver I have experienced this underwater world first-hand and it changed my life. So many people have not had this experience. My hope is that we, as scuba divers and ambassadors of the sea, continue to share our world. Share our knowledge and share with the community how to stop such accidents from happening.

I’m I saddened, sickened, and even furious? Of course, I am, but we need to have faith to find solutions. My faith is local fishing village communities can learn and understand the catastrophic impacts that will not only destroy a local reef for the diving community but also for the fishing community too. Everyone loses unless we work together.