Fishing nets kill Australian turtles

This video says about itself:

Flatback turtle hatching out of the egg shell. Taken at Flinders Beach, Mapoon, Queensland, Australia.

From Wildlife Extra:

Phantom fishing nets endangering marine turtles in northern Australia

January 2013. Australia’s national science agency, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) scientists working with GhostNets Australia and Indigenous rangers are identifying hotspots where lost fishing nets are threatening marine biodiversity.

640,000 tonnes of fishing nets discarded every year

Worldwide, around 640,000 tonnes of fishing gear is lost or discarded each year. These ‘ghostnets’ can continue fishing for decades, entangling huge numbers of marine animals, including threatened and commercially valuable species.

Major problem

Ghostnets, originating mainly from fisheries in Asia and Australia, are a particular problem in Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria, where they can reach densities of up to three tonnes/km, among the highest recorded worldwide.

Impacting marine turtles

“Our research goes beyond discovering where ghostnet fishing is taking place, to actually estimating its impact on biodiversity, in particular on threatened marine turtles,” Dr Denise Hardesty of CSIRO said.

“Using a model of ocean currents and data collected by Indigenous rangers on the number of ghostnets found during beach cleanups, we simulated the likely paths ghostnets take to get to their landing spots on beaches in the Gulf of Carpentaria,” Dr Hardesty said.

“Combining this with information about the occurrence of turtles in the area, we found that entanglement risk for turtles is concentrated in an area along the eastern margin of the Gulf and in a wide section in the southwest extending up the west coast,” she said.

“Most ghostnets enter the Gulf from the northwest and move clockwise along its shore. This means we can help protect biodiversity in the region by intercepting nets as they enter the Gulf, before they reach the high density turtle areas along south and east coastlines,” she said.

Home to 6 species of marine turtle

Australia is home to six of the world’s seven threatened species of marine turtle. During a recent cleanup of ghostnets on beaches in the Gulf, 80 per cent of animals recorded in nets were marine turtles, including Olive Ridley, Hawksbill, Green and Flatback turtles.

“Our predictions of the distribution of turtles washing ashore entangled in ghostnets matched the actual frequencies of turtles found in ghostnets during beach surveys, suggesting our model is accurate,” Dr Hardesty said.

Ghostnets are a global problem, capturing seabirds, marine mammals and sea turtles worldwide. Lost or abandoned fishing gear makes up only 20 per cent of marine debris but has a disproportionate effect because it is designed to capture wildlife.

“Our research shows that combining models of marine debris with species occurrence data could identify global hot spots for impact, helping pinpoint where prevention and clean-ups could really make a difference to biodiversity,” Dr Hardesty said.

This research used information on ocean currents generated by the BLUElink Ocean Data Assimilation System to simulate the paths of ghostnets.

Ghostnet impacts on globally threatened turtles, a spatial risk analysis for northern Australia’ was published by CSIRO and GhostNets Australia in the January 2013 online early issue of Conservation Letters.

Australia: Discarded and illegal fishing traps are causing serious problems for marine life at Port Stephens, particularly threatened turtle species: here.

June 2013. Nine thousand kilos of discarded fishing nets have been collected for recycling into carpet tiles, drastically transforming littered beaches along the Danajon Bank, Philippines: here.

“Ghost fishing” divers remove abandoned fishing nets: here.

Ghost nets in the Netherlands: here.

Related articles

• Giving turtles ghost of a chance against drifting killers (csironewsblog.com)
• NOAA Report: Mexican Fishing Vessels Killing Endangered Sea Turtles (usnews.com)
• Greek loggerhead turtle news (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• We need to let go (hovercraftdoggy.com)
• Dead turtle washes ashore at Palavakkam (thehindu.com)
• Volunteers search NC coast to rescue sea turtles (sacbee.com)
• Groups want critical habitat for loggerhead sea turtles (summitcountyvoice.com)
• US government sued over endangered sea turtles (guardian.co.uk)
• GhostNets funding vanishes (abc.net.au)
• Light pollution along coastal areas prevents sea turtles from nesting (treehugger.com)