Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded in the ocean which pose a major threat to marine megafauna.
Thejaswini Shettigar, a marine conservationist from RCMC told TOI that the ghost net retrieval project funded by HCL Foundation has been launched. “We have been asking fishermen, especially trawl boat fishermen to try and bring back nets that they find floating on the sea to the shore for which a buy-back incentive will be provided. In addition, beach clean-ups will also be conducted.”
A team of experts, who conducted the postmortem on the humpback dolphin that had washed ashore at Malpe beach, were in for a shock when they found a ball of ghost net in the dolphin’s gut. Thejaswini said the team was informed by a stranding network informer about the decomposed carcass on June 9.
“When we opened the gut, we found a ball of ghost net that was entangled and seemed pretty old, weighing about a kg. It may have been ingested by the dolphin some time back. At times when fishermen are on voyages, the nets get cut naturally after getting entangled in the holders and the fragments flow into the sea. Fishermen do try to get back the nets since they are expensive, but if the damage is big, the nets flow into the sea and get entangled around marine species. Also, there have been instances, when the dolphins attack the nets itself to pull out fish and ends up swallowing nets. Dolphins are known to die faster due to stress,” she said.
Last year, in August, the team retrieved about 2.5 kg of ghost net from a dolphin that was washed ashore in Karwar. Turtles too have been victims of ghost nets and there have been several instances of them suffering from injured flippers and stunted growth. Two cases of turtle flipper injury due to ghost nets were reported in Beejadi of Kundapur this year. Both suffered severe injuries and are under the care of Reef Watch