Another ghost net removed from Garig Gunak Barlu National Park waters
NT Parks and Wildlife rangers remove another large ghost net from marine waters within Garig Gunak Barlu National Park on the Cobourg Peninsula. These rogue floating nets are a major threat for the marine life that inhabit the protected waters that surround the peninsula.
The NT Parks and Wildlife team in Garig Gunak Barlu National Park on the Cobourg Peninsula recently removed another ghost net from the marine waters. This is the first for this year, with another removed in early 2023.
While operating the Parks and Wildlife Division’s Meander 2 work vessel, rangers conducted an exercise that is all too familiar in their everyday working lives along the coastal waters of the peninsula. The hard-working rangers located and retrieved another ghost net and towed it back to the Parks boat ramp, then dragged it ashore with the Black Point Ranger Station tractor.
It had taken a full day for this removal, with tireless efforts to free the net from its bundled snag, entangled around sub-barnacles,, and located off the Vashon Head point of the peninsula. Once free, the Rangers then proceeded to tow the net 20 km back to the Black Point landing.
Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been abandoned, lost or discarded at sea. They can be kilometres long and weigh up to several tonnes. Once lost or discarded, ghost nets can drift for hundreds of kilometres. These are known to be the silent killers of the sea, causing injury or death to the many marine species that become entangled in them.
Rangers at Garig Gunak Barlu National Park regularly remove ghost nets from park waters, especially after the wet season’s strong north westerly winds that bring in marine debris, which are often suspected to be from foreign countries.
