In Sri Lankan waters, there’s a growing problem of ghost nets that are entangling sea turtles, fish, dolphins and seabirds, reports contributor Malaka Rodrigo for Mongabay.
“Ghost nets” are fishing gear that have either been abandoned, lost or discarded into the sea. As these drift with the ocean currents, they continue to trap marine animals — or “ghost fish.”
“These lost fishing gear kill scores of marine species and remains a specific problem for marine turtles,” said Thushan Kapurusinghe, project lead of the Turtle Conservation Project of Sri Lanka.
Charith Dilshan, project manager of the Galbokka Sea Turtle Conservation & Research Center in Kosgoda, southern Sri Lanka, told Rodrigo they find at least 30 turtles entangled in ghost nets along their stretch of beach each year.
Turtles aside, ghost nets have also been observed entangling fish, dolphins and seabirds in Sri Lankan waters. In fact, ghost fishing can trigger chain reactions, Rodrigo writes. Small fish caught in the drifting gear can attract larger predators such as turtles and dolphins, which then become entangled themselves. “That’s why we call them ‘floating cemeteries,’” Kapurusinghe said.
Dilshan said some ghost nets found in Sri Lankan waters were likely lost or discarded elsewhere. Research suggests the problem of ghost nets can indeed be a transboundary one, with fishing gear abandoned or lost in one country’s waters drifting into those of another’s.
A 2019 study, which focused on the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, for example, documented 752 ghost nets that had entangled 131 turtles over a 51-month period. The researchers estimated that the same ghost nets could have ensnared between 3,400 and 12,200 turtles across the Indian Ocean before they were detected in the Maldives.
However, Sri Lanka also contributes significantly to the problem, Rodrigo writes.
A pilot study published in 2023, for instance, surveyed 325 vessels and estimated they’d lost nearly 22,600 kilograms (about 50,000 pounds) of plastic fishing gear to the sea. The actual figure is likely to be much higher since there are more than 50,000 registered fishing vessels across the country, said Gayathri Lokuge of the Centre for Poverty Analysis (CEPA), who co-authored the study.
Lokuge and her colleagues identified gill nets as the most frequently lost gear, followed by lines and hooks. Interviews with fishers revealed that poor weather and ocean conditions are the leading causes for losing or discarding fishing gear. Poor port waste management and limited recycling infrastructure add to the problem, Lokuge said.
Rodrigo writes that ghost nets washed ashore are now a common sight across Sri Lanka’s beaches. A survey of 22 beaches found that fishing gear made up 20% of marine debris.
Read the full story by Malaka Rodrigo here.
Banner image: Two olive ridley turtles caught in discarded fishing nets. Image courtesy of Galbokka Sea Turtle Conservation & Research Center.
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