eyes4earth.org
Consciousness for Connectedness
  • Home
  • About
  • What is…?
    • Meaningful Nature Experience
    • Connectedness with Nature
    • nature-based synchronicity
  • Research
    • PhD Dissertation
    • Research Insights
    • Bibliography
    • Helpful Links
  • Publications
  • Experiences
    • Fauna (Animals)
    • Flora & Landscape
    • Share Your Own!
  • Poetry
  • Media
    • Video
    • Music
    • Images
  • Blog
Blog 0

Ghost nets get an afterlife

By eyes4earth @eyes4earth · On October 2, 2007

The Carpentaria Ghost Nets Programme is looking at new and innovative ways of reusing the ‘ghost nets’ washed up on beaches across many parts of northern Australia.

Ghost nets are abandoned fishing nets that have been accidentally lost or deliberately discarded at sea. They can be one of the most damaging forms of marine debris as they may drift for months or years with the currents and continue to catch and kill endangered and culturally important marine wildlife such as turtles and sharks.

However, the positive news is that through a growing alliance of Indigenous land and sea ranger groups, these fishing nets are now being permanently removed from our oceans. To date, approximately 64 000 metres of net have been removed – enough to cover the Sydney Harbour Bridge 120 times. Individual nets weighing over 5 tonne and measuring 4 kilometres in length have been recorded.

All in a days work - fishing nets collected from Australia’s northeast Arnhem Land coastline

More of the usual rubbish

The Carpentaria Ghost Nets Programme is looking at ways to make useful items from the ghost nets which could be reused in local communities or resold through Iindigenous Art and Cultural Centres. For example, a design competition hosted last year saw a number of creative designs presented. The winner was a guitar strap with ghost net as a base and interwoven with thongs (flips flops), plastic bags, tyre tubes and other marine debris. The idea can readily utilise the extensive weaving skills available in Aboriginal communities and can be adapted to make belts, mats and bags.

Other ideas submitted included a chair, hammock, fruit bowl, kitchen hanger and an earthquake stabilizing technique to use for mud brick housing. The Programme is also looking overseas for other bright ideas: in Hawaii for example they burn the nets in power generation plants – 100 tonne of marine debris can power 44 houses for a year!

Re-using nets to make bagsWinning design - a guitar strap made from discarded fishing netThe talented weaving skills of Indigenous women

For more information, visit the Carpentaria Ghost Nets Programme or if you are interested in helping out as part of your next travel holiday, contact World Expeditions. Australian travel TV show Getaway featured the Ghost Nets clean-up (“Arnhem Land Marine Rescue“) during its programme on 25th October 2007.
Share Tweet

eyes4earth

eyes4earth.org is a portal into meaningful nature experience and connectedness with nature. It draws on scientific research and experiential insight to explore implications for sustainability education and consciousness. Learn more »

Be the first to share a comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Recent Posts

  • Interview on ‘Dierepraters’

    September 17, 2021
  • Armageddon Dating & Polyamorous Place Relationships

    January 31, 2021
  • Keurbooms Lagoon 2021 Calendar – now available

    November 21, 2020

Instagram Feed

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: No feed found.

Please go to the Instagram Feed settings page to create a feed.

Follow On Facebook

Topics / Tags

Africa Americas Attention Birds Cetaceans Community Outreach Consciousness CWN Education Human-Wildlife Interaction Insects Interspecies Communication Interviews Mammals Marine MNE Non-Native Species Oceania Perception Poetry Sensory Awareness Spirituality Synchronicity Traditional Knowledge Video Wilderness

Follow On Twitter

My Tweets

Meaningful Quotes

The success of an intervention depends on the interior condition of the intervenor.

— William O’Brien
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Archive

About

eyes4earth.org is a portal into meaningful nature experience and connectedness with nature. It draws on scientific research and experiential insight to explore implications for sustainability education and consciousness.
Learn more »

PhD Download

The PhD research underpinning certain content on eyes4earth.org was completed in early 2014.

The final dissertation is freely available for download here.

Learn more »

GIVE

eyes4earth supports masiyembo.org: an initiative that is creating opportunities for people to find meaning and wellbeing through nature. Join us in giving others the chance to experience renewed connection with earth.Donate via GivenGain


© 2007-2021 eyes4earth.org