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Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Detail in beach photo proves $17 billion Aussie issue is 'getting worse'
A major clean-up effort to rid northern Australia's coastlines of deadly ghost nets is under threat, with a federally funded scheme in place since 2021 yet to be renewed. Authorities at the Top End warn that should the government permanently discontinue the grant — which is scheduled to expire at the end of June — it would be a "huge blow" to the "critically important" work being undertaken to combat the crisis. Since 2021, rangers at Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory have removed 140,000 kilograms of rubbish and 800 ghost fishing nets — the abandoned, lost or discarded fishing nets that can drift for years — from the Top End's remote beaches and bays. They often haul them out by hand in punishing conditions, from sites accessible only a few weeks each year. Parks Australia, a division within the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, is responsible for delivering the $15 million Ghost Net Initiative, which has helped 22 Indigenous ranger groups in their clean-up efforts. But, at the end of this month, that support is set to end. Ghost nets and pollutive debris in the Top End wreak havoc on marine life, trapping and killing turtles, dolphins, and countless other creatures. They silently destroy fragile ecosystems, turning vibrant waters into graveyards. Scientists estimate that globally between 8 and 10 million tonnes of plastic pollute the ocean every year. Experts warn that, within the next 25 years, plastic waste may even outweigh all the fish in the sea. Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, a spokesperson for the Northern Land Council (NLC), the body representing the Aboriginal people of the Top End, said the decision not to renew funding is devastating. "The recent NT Government budget cuts to the Aboriginal ranger grants were a huge blow to ranger groups right across the Territory," a NLC spokesperson said. "We would hate to see more money go from a program that is actually working." Thanks to funding from the Ghost Net Initiative, researchers have been able to deploy drones and AI technology to detect and retrieve abandoned fishing nets along remote stretches of coastline. Scientists say they've found ghost nets roughly every kilometre in the region, tangled in rocks, buried in sand, or lodged in mangroves. The drones can spot net fragments as small as 50 centimetres, and AI software then analyses the images and sends exact coordinates to the rangers for recovery. The NLC spokesperson said the work ranger groups do to de-tangle and remove these harmful nets is "incredibly time-consuming, hard-going and above all critically important" to protecting the flora and fauna of the area. "Our rangers must be funded properly to do this work," they said. They say the problem is only getting worse. In Arnhem Land, Indigenous rangers have reported finding nets on beaches they had cleared just weeks earlier — the debris carried in once more on seasonal tides. "When the nets come, they trap animals like buffaloes, turtles and dolphins," senior ranger Clive Nunggarrgalu told the ABC. "We can cut the nets and free turtles, but even young buffaloes get trapped in the nets along the sand." Ghost nets are a global threat, but northern Australia is at the epicentre. The Gulf of Carpentaria is considered the world's worst hotspot for ghost gear. Marine plastic pollution is estimated to cause AUD $17.3 billion a year in ecosystem damage and about $132 million per year in local government clean-up costs. "Some of the beaches, they look great, but the rubbish is underneath the sand," Nunggarrgalu said. Yahoo News Australia contacted Parks Australia on whether there were plans to renew the scheme, but a spokesperson told us its continuation remains dependent on future budget decisions. Meaning, no commitment has been made yet, and the program's future will hinge on government funding allocations in the coming budget cycles. "Removing ghost nets addresses critical risks to marine species which become entangled, lacerated or strangled by these abandoned fishing nets," the spokesperson said. "Focused on northern Australian waters and the Gulf of Carpentaria, known as the world's ghost net hotspot, this initiative has helped reduce threats to marine wildlife and supported First Nations economic development." 10-tonne find on Aussie beach highlights devastating issue Calls for major change after 'devastating' find among bones Disturbing find exposes problem taking over Aussie waterways The spokesperson said the Indigenous Ranger Coastal Clean-up Project has supported 22 Indigenous Ranger Groups involving 3,400 people, and the government has invested $1.4 million in regional partnerships through the Global Ghost Gear Initiative and the Arafura and Timor Seas Ecosystem Action (ATSEA) Program, which brings together Australia, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Papua New Guinea to address marine pollution. "We will continue to work with our regional partners to tackle this issue in our shared waters," they said. Still, those on the ground say global plans mean little without boots in the sand. "We look forward to hearing from the federal environment minister on the next steps for this program and its funding," the NLC said. Love Australia's weird and wonderful environment? 🐊🦘😳 Get our new newsletter showcasing the week's best stories.
ABC News
17-06-2025
- General
- ABC News
Clock ticking for patrols battling ghost net ocean plastics in Gulf of Carpentaria
It is rubbish season in northern Australia. When the winds pick up after the monsoon storms, tonnes of plastic trash and discarded fishing nets gathered in the Gulf of Carpentaria make for the coastline. Indigenous rangers patrolling the coastline find ankle-deep plastic rubbish, lids with turtle bite marks and remnants of turtles caught in discarded fishing nets. But with no guarantee of continued funding after the end of this month, they are calling for ongoing support to deal with the amount of plastic waste they see increasing each year. Scientists estimate 8-to-10 million tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean each year. In the next 25 years, they say, plastic may outweigh fish in the ocean. Two per cent of the world's fishing gear is estimated to become ghost nets — lost, discarded or abandoned fishing gear. Senior ranger Clive Nunggarrgalu works with the Numbulwar Numburindi Rangers in west Arnhem Land, where six rangers patrol and care for 300 kilometres of remote coastline. Many of the bays and beaches where ghost nets and marine debris accumulate are only accessible for a few weeks. "When the nets come, they trap animals like buffaloes, turtles and dolphins," he said. "We can cut the nets and free turtles, but even buffaloes, young buffaloes, get trapped in the nets along the sand." He said the tides often buried the nets. "Some of the beaches, they look great, but the rubbish is underneath the sand," he said. For the past four years, the federally funded $15 million Ghost Net Initiative has assisted 22 Indigenous ranger groups with clean-up efforts. They have worked alongside 3,600 people to remove 160,000 kilograms of marine debris, as well as 860 ghost nets. Some of the waste removed has been transformed into reusable fishing gear, art and woven baskets. Since 2018, Sea Shepherd's marine debris campaigner, Grahame Lloyd, has worked with the Dhimurru rangers in north-east Arnhem Land. They worked together to clean up a remote, 14km sacred turtle nesting beach. "In the two COVID years, more plastic had washed up on the beach than had accumulated seven years prior," Mr Lloyd said. "It was that bad that in certain sections, we were using shovels because the rubbish came halfway up your calves. "You had to stand in the plastic to get that top layer off." He said that, without funds to keep the beaches clean, each new season would bring another stockpile of plastic waste . Ghost Net Initiative funding has allowed researchers to use drones and AI systems to help locate and retrieve nets on hard-to-reach coastlines. Charles Darwin University researcher Aliesha Havala has been working with Anindilyakwa Land and Sea Rangers using drones to find nets. She said they found a ghost net almost every kilometre of coastline they searched — among rocks, buried deep in sand or caught in mangrove estuaries. The drones can detect a portion of ghost net as small as 50 centimetres. Using AI programming, the drones then send rangers the coordinates. "A lot of the time these ghost nets are either obscured or they are buried, essentially big icebergs under the sand," she said. "Some of the nets are so large they need to be winched out of the sand or winched onto a vessel to be removed." The marine debris season for the Anindilyakwa Rangers has well and truly started. Two more nets have washed up in areas where the rangers removed some a few weeks ago, Ms Havala said. At the UN Ocean conference in France last week, federal Environment Minister Murray Watt signalled his support for a global treaty to end plastic pollution. He highlighted the need to strengthen regional partnerships tackling ghost nets and single-use plastics in the Pacific Ocean and Arafura and Timor seas. In October, the Australian government joined the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, committing $1.4 million to regional partnerships with Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The ABC asked Mr Watt and Parks Australia if Ghost Nets Initiative funding would continue but did not receive a direct answer.
The Guardian
13-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Plastics campaigners warn Australia's pledge at UN needs to be matched with ‘high ambition at home'
The federal environment minister, Murray Watt, is returning from a UN oceans conference where he pledged to curb the scourge of plastics and make good on Australia's promise to ratify a treaty to protect the high seas. The five-day meeting in Nice, France finished on Friday, and conservationists celebrated some key steps towards protecting wildlife in international waters. But on plastics, campaigners warned that Australia's drive for an international treaty needed to be matched with ambition domestically. In 2022, Australia joined a 'high ambition coalition' to push for a global treaty on plastics, but talks in December failed to produce the treaty. The treaty aims to cut the production and consumption of virgin plastics, phase out problematic plastics and introduce design rules to minimise environmental harm and make recycling and re-use easier. Cip Hamilton, the plastics campaign manager at Australian Marine Conservation Society, said attention on the treaty would now focus on talks in Geneva in August, when she would travel with Indigenous rangers from north-east Arnhem Land. That community in Australia's Northern Territory was being inundated by so-called ghost nets – discarded or lost industrial fishing gear – and other plastics washing up onshore, Hamilton said. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton's Clear Air column as a free newsletter 'There is about 250kg of plastic leaking into our environment every minute. Once it gets into the environment, it's almost impossible to get it out and it's causing devastation to our wildlife,' she said. 'We need to be enacting domestic solutions … Recycling alone won't end plastic pollution.' Jeff Angel, a leading plastics campaigner and director of the Boomerang Alliance, said Australia's desire for a global plastics treaty 'must also mean high ambition at home'. Australia had a substantial 'unfinished' agenda dealing with plastics, he said, with recycling and recovery rates stuck at just 12.5%. 'The vast majority of plastic polluting our coasts, waterways, public spaces, soil and air is generated domestically,' Angel said. While in Nice, Australia joined nine other countries, including France, the UK and Spain, in a new coalition to halt the extinction of sharks and rays. A federal government spokesperson said this would 'generate momentum for urgent, coordinated conservation efforts'. Watt told the conference Australia would expand its ocean area protected from fishing, drilling and mining to 30% by 2030. Sign up to Clear Air Australia Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis after newsletter promotion The Albanese government also said it would bring in legislation before the end of the year to ratify a landmark global high seas treaty it signed in 2023, and had been two decades in the making. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said enough countries had committed to ratifying the treaty that it could come into force as early as January 2026. The treaty covers the 60% of the ocean that is beyond the jurisdiction of any individual country – about 90% of the ocean by volume. Prof Tim Stephens, an international law expert at the University of Sydney, said the treaty would probably be 'very widely ratified' around the world. 'The high seas has remained an ungoverned area,' Stephens said. 'Australia has been an incredibly strong supporter of this treaty process that at several points could have fallen over. 'The high seas is an area where states have freedoms, like navigation, research and fishing, but that also means they haven't been adequately managed and protected.' The treaty – an agreement under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea – would allow for countries to nominate areas of the high seas for protection and would regulate access to marine genetic resources (which, for example, could be used in research or to develop new technologies). Stephens said the treaty would require signatories, including Australia, to assess any impacts that new activities in domestic waters, such as major fossil fuel projects, could have on the high seas. This would reinforce that members of the UN convention had obligations to protect the marine environment, he said. This would mean countries could be held to account under the treaty for protecting the high seas 'in a way we have not seen before', he added.
