#ghost nets

Coming to Bahari Museum in Jakarta for my otacult trip (otaku-cultural trip or I usually mentioned it as wisata berwibudaya — in Bahasa Indonesia) because I wanted to visit my personal most wanted & must see exhibition named Ghost Nets: Awakening the Drifting Giants by Erub Arts.

Ghost Nets: Awakening the Drifting Giants exhibition

The exhibition showcased about 18 aquatic species shaped hand-woven sculptures made of ghost nets (discarded fishing nets waste) by Erub Arts; Eruban artist collective from Danley Island, Torres Strait. The exhibition is also a collaboration between Australian Embassy Indonesia and Erub Arts.

Through their artworks and large-scale installations from ghost nets, Erub Arts sends awareness regarding not only environmental issues across the Torres Strait, but also marine conservation efforts.

The colourful and eye-catching details of stingray hand-woven sculpture

I really took my sweet time here to admire and appreciate every single eye-catching and colorful detail of the hand-woven sculptures, which really left me in awe. Though, the room and lighting kinda didn't do justice.

Other hand-woven sculpture of aquatic species

Location: Maritime Museum Jakarta

Cheers,

Thousands of turtles, marine animals victims of plastic fishing nets polluting Gulf of Carpentaria

Plastic fishing nets, some the size of football fields, are washing up on Australia's northern coastline, slowly killing endangered turtles and creating a "global hotspot" for plastic pollution.

Ben Pearson from World Animal Protection told a national plastic pollution conference that the Gulf of Carpentaria was being afflicted by so-called ghost net pollution.

"These nets can be absolutely massive," Mr Pearson said.

"They can weigh many tonnes and of course they're designed to catch marine animals, which is why they're so deadly.

The Gulf of Carpentaria is home to six of the world's seven sea turtle species, and is one of the largest nesting areas in the Indo-Pacific region.

In 2016 Australian authorities removed seven ghost nets weighing more than 29 tonnes from the Timor and Arafura seas.

Read more here.

Written by Nicole Chettle

Click or tap on the photo: it’s a two minute video.

What’s this about:

Combining her skills as a dancer and an ocean conservationist, Ren is tackling one of the most pressing — and addressable — issues affecting oceans worldwide: so-called "ghost nets." These nets are discarded or lost by fishermen who don't want to haul the heavy plastic nets back to land after they've caught their quotas. So the giant nets go over the sides of boats and into the sea where they float around, catching and killing all kinds of animals, from sea turtles to fish, crustaceans, and more. And once a few fish are caught in the nets and die, the nets attract more fish looking for a meal, creating a horrible cycle of destruction, threatening already overfished and stressed fish communities.

Ren's awareness campaign (described in the video above) was shot in collaboration with Jose G. Cano in Nelson, New Zealand — just one member of a rich team described at the bottom of this post. Her goal is to "... drive traffic to our solution partners that are fostering net buyback programs — training and paying fisherman to reclaim derelict gear and regenerate the nylon waste into sustainable products."

Dumped fishing nets account for 10% of marine litter found on the sea floor. Off the spectacular Greek island of Santorini, divers drag deadly ‘ghost nets’ from the depths of the Aegean Sea. They have claimed the lives of thousands of fish. George Sarelakos, head of the NGO Aegean Rebreath, says that the nets are "a huge problem around the globe”. “They represent about 10 per cent of marine litter found on the sea bottom." Over the last five years, Aegean Rebreath's 300 volunteer divers have removed more than 28 tonnes of nets and hundreds of thousands of plastic bags from Greek waters. But why are ghost nets such a problem in Greece?

We might think of ocean waste being rubbish like plastic bags and bottles, but waste from the fishing industry can have a huge impact on marine life too.

So as part of the work towards keeping Ireland’s seas clean, a new pilot scheme is to be launched that aims to reduce the amount of old fishing gear that gets dumped in the ocean.

From autumn, fishers will be able to dispose of their old and damaged fishing gear in a new pilot scheme that aims to reduce ocean waste.

The announcement was made by Minister Charlie McConalogue to coincide with World Oceans Day.