Mosaic Map: NRM funded projects
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War on ghost nets
Marine rubbish is a problem everywhere in Australia. But in Northern Australia's Gulf of Carpentaria it's a serious issue, with many rare forms of sea life threatened by floating debris.
And the deadliest rubbish is abandoned fishing nets, or ghost nets, which kill sea animals like turtles and dugongs.
Funding
To help overcome this problem, a two-day forum was held in Karumba in 2004 by the Northern Gulf Resource Management Group, funded through the Australian Government and with support from the State Government.
Activities
Of the 75 people present, there were at least two representatives from 15 out of the 19 Gulf community groups, plus representatives from science, government, nature conservation and commercial fishing.
Volunteer forum coordinator Riki Gunn from the Northern Gulf Resource Management Group said the forum revealed a strong desire from communities to consolidate the 'scattered approach' of dealing with ghost nets.
"It was agreed that the best way to keep sea country in the Gulf clean is to utilise the external support that communities need to remove ghost nets and to find ways of bringing Indigenous communities together so they can support each other," she said.
Achievements
Twenty five positive recommendations were made at the forum to determine how the communities could work with external partners to manage the ghost net problem. One recommendation included the formation of an Interim Steering Committee of government, non-government and Indigenous representatives. Riki Gunn was appointed as the Gulf Ghost Net Coordinator in recognition of her past contribution to the issue.
A Gulf Ghost Net Communication Network was formed to create a two-way flow of information to all communities, organisations and individuals involved in the Ghost Net issue in the Gulf. It was also agreed to improve cooperation with key organisations such as Customs, Coastwatch, Defence Forces and Commercial Fisheries, involved in surveillance, transport and fishing operations within the Gulf. This would help with tracking and retrieving Ghost Nets.
Other recommendations included mapping Ghost Net hot spots and continued support for 'the net kit', which was published by the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) to identify nets collected around the Gulf.
After the forum the Northern Gulf Regional Management Group received further Australian Government funding to put the recommendations into place.
More information
- Riki Gunn, Project coordinator: (07) 4745 9661 or riki@ghostnets.com.au
- Carpentaria Ghost Nets
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