Malaysia’s local islanders are taking on ghost nets. Is it enough?

topic:	Ocean Pollution
located:	Malaysia
editor:	Ashley Yeong

Ghost nets are lost or abandoned fishing gear made of synthetic fibres, plastic, and nylon. They are a significant threat to marine life as they take centuries to degrade. They stay in the water long after they’ve been cast off from fishing boats, slowly breaking down into smaller plastic pieces while trapping marine life and destroying coral reefs and shorelines.

For six years, between 2016 and 2022, local islanders in Malaysia’s Tioman Island Marine Park tackled the ghost net problem head-on. They retrieved 145 nets, weighing over 21 tonnes, from the island's waters.

Though ghost nets are just a fraction of all fishing gear left in the ocean, over 650,000 marine animals get caught in these nets every year.

Ghost nets catch fish but also entangle sea turtles, dolphins, sharks, seals, and whales. The smaller ones swim right into the nets, not realizing the danger, while the bigger animals get stuck trying to feed on the nets and eventually sink to the bottom of the ocean floor.

The locals of Tioman Island are not standing idly by. Conservation group Reef Check Malaysia has given islanders the tools and training to fight back. Armed with information from a hotline that collects reports from dive centres, snorkel guides, and tourists, these islanders head out to reefs and beaches to hunt down the ghost nets.

Once they've determined the size, location, type, and depth of a ghost net, these trained islanders set out on a boat and return with troves of them, ensuring they're disposed of properly.

The issue of ghost nets has been known for years. Yet, fishing companies often turn a blind eye. Since ghost nets can drift far from their origins, it's hard to track where they come from, and it's usually cheaper for the ships to abandon them than to retrieve them.

Until a long-term solution is in place or rigid international regulations are established, fishing vessels can continue to toss their old nets overboard without consequences.

Image by chanwit whanset.

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