A massive abandoned fishing net has been discovered in the waters off the coast of the Cayman Islands, containing hundreds of dead fish and sharks.
Discovered this week by Dominick Martin-Mayes and his friends, the 27-year-old fisherman and diving instructor said they came across the 50-by-50-foot net just north of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean.
“At first we thought it was a log, but as we got closer we could see it was a net with floats,” said Martin-Mayes. “I jumped in the water first and was shocked at what I saw. It took my breath away – the first thing I saw was the juvenile oceanic whitetip [shark].”
The divers attempted to cut some of the trapped animals free with a knife, but quickly realized that most of them were already dead. They were able to release several fish and a shark from the net.
“The more that get caught, the more that come in to eat it and get caught themselves,” he said. They attempted to tow the net back to land, but it was too heavy and they were forced to leave it behind; howeve, they did report the coordinates to the Department of Environment.
Once alerted to the presence of the net, the Cayman Islands government reached out to boaters in an effort to locate the net and remove it.
According to Tim Austin, deputy director of the Department of Environment, it appears that the net had been drifting for quite some time, due to the number of creatures entrapped within it.
“If we can locate it, we can assess whether we can recover it or tow it somewhere to secure it until it can be dealt with safely,” he said. “We don’t want it to end up in the reef and we need to stop its deadly ghost fishing.”
Ingrid Giskes, Global Head of Sea Change at World Animal Protection, says that at least 640,000 tons of ghost fishing gear are lost into the ocean every year, killing and injuring millions of animals.
“It’s devastating to see yet another ‘ghost net’ that is continuing to catch and kill marine life beneath the waves,” said Giskes. “Abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear is a problem that spells catastrophe for marine life as we know it. 45% of all marine mammals on the Red List of Threatened Species have been impacted by lost or abandoned fishing gear and as much as 92% of marine animal-debris encounters involve plastic debris. 71% of entanglements involve plastic ghost gear.”
Giske said that ghost gear is four times more likely to affect marine life through entanglement than all other forms of marine debris combined.
We need to have biodegradable nets!
hUMANS ARE DESTROYING eARTH AND EVERYTHING ON IT . UNTIL THERE IS NO GOOD AIR AND NO CLEAN WATER LEFT. MANY ANIMALS VANISHED FROM THE PLANET IN ONLY HALF CENTURY. WHAT A SHAME AND GOVERNMENTS ARE TOO BUSY WITH OTHER THINGS TO SEE THAT THIS PLANET IS FUCKED UP IN LESS THAN ONE HUNDERT YEARS.
Terrible!
La fauna marina de todos los mares del mundo deben ser protegidas; no tenemos derechoa aninguna clase de extermnio!!
How would they like to be done like that
Fishermen are irresponsible. More and more there is evidence of fishermen not caring for the oceans and inhabitants.
All fishing gear needs to be replaced with netting that decomposes or biodegradeable nets,it would save thousands of sea life.!!!!!!!
Damn those fisherman with their Gill Nets. Yes, sharks are dangerous, but do not need to suffer in nets and possibly die. They are animals of this Earth and deserve a chance to live just as we do. Fisherman don’t care IF Sharks are caught, suffer and die, all they want are make money from.
The Ghost net has been removed from the water i Cayman.
There are other options-please review your procedures to do the right thing by these animals
Why can’t these gill nets be outlawed & if found in use, serious penalties be enforced on the fishermen, maybe even prohibit them from ever fishing again. Careless humans always causing death & destruction to innocent animals. When will it stop? We need to enforce stricter protection laws for defenseless animals before mankind kills them all.
Why can’t these gill nets be outlawed & if found in use, serious penalties be enforced on the fishermen, maybe even prohibit them from ever fishing again. Careless humans always causing death & destruction to innocent animals. When will it stop? We need to enforce stricter protection laws for defenseless animals before mankind kills them all.
There is no end to the irresponsibility of redneck idiots. I hope they get their just desserts in the end.
the entire crew of one of these ships needs to be skinned alive and fed to the sharks they would otherwise be slaughtering… the degree of depravity we have come to accept from these sea faring rednecks is disturbing… can these perverts do anything to living beings and get away with it, or do we start finding unidentifiable redneck remains scattered over the decks of their ships… cruelty must be “extinguished” (sic) before its more than redneck scum performing these horrendous acts…
Fishermen should be more responsible with their nets. They are killing all sorts of marine life.
Why on earth are these massive nets being abandoned in the oceans anyway? I don’t understand that. Why not dispose of them via land?
Why on earth are these massive nets being abandoned in the oceans anyway? I don’t understand that. Why not dispose of them via land?
Please fishermen and women, take your nets with you and don’t leave marine life ti die in ghost nets needlessly.
I don’t get it why haven’t anyone come up with a real solution to how to deal with lost nets etc? Seems pretty straight forward if you asked me, Have all huge fishing vessels tag their huge nets like a licence on a any vehicle. The lic plastic plates would appear on every 100 square foot of every net. When discovered fine the owners $100,000.00!!!
No more cruelty!!
O sofrimento animal precisa acabar. Precisamos e podemos unir forças ao redor do mundo para que animais deixem de ser vítimas da insanidade humana.
Irracionais são os seres humanas em cometer tantas atrocidades!!!
this is just wrong
Arrête d’attraper des requin où autre dand vos fillet mortels
Fisherman should be made to go out and look for their ghost netting. Hunans are the most dangerous and irresponsible animals on earth.
When, as humans, are we going to learn that we have to live in harmony with the other residents on our planet. In our so-call “superiority” we are pushing many species to the brink of extinction, usually in the name of either greed or ignorance, or both. If we keep on the way we are doing, we will be the ones pushed to extinction, as many scientist are now predicting – in fact, we have already entered the Anthropocene – or 6th extinction. It is not too late to reverse things, but I suspect we are too stupid and selfish to do anything until it is too late.
Criminal fishers that must be punished since the ocean in nont a private property and all animals are free!!
It comes down to every fisherman to be responsible, where I live in Brisbane on the bayside, the number of plastic bait bags I pick up on the sand is just disgusting, we loose turtles and dugongs to this plastic menace. Just take your rubbish home and discard it in the proper place please.
It breaks thinking peoples hearts to see these creatures trapped with no way out, all because someone could not be bothered to retrieve the net.
It’s totally unacceptable for several gill nets forgotten by, it should be a crime punish by law to have killed some oceanic individuals on purpose…
It should be certainly interesting to see the International law in the near future change some rules in way to protect the animal species in danger of extention, than the profits generate by these kind of fisherman industries shameless by their fatal actions …
Human is the most egoaistic creature created by God himself
Fisherman are complete assholes. They over fish areas on a regular basis. Cape cod actually has a shortage of cod because of over fishing. They have no regard to drug nets killing all spiecies.
Fisherman are complete assholes. They over fish areas on a regular basis. Cape cod actually has a shortage of cod because of over fishing. They have no regard to drug nets killing all spiecies.
Drift nets*
Please free these sharks from the nets ! Don’t leave nets behind !
Your disregard and lock or responsibility when you leave these nets makes me think that you are not very good at your job and I’m not referring to the ignorant people who leave the nets but the government who aren’t smart enough to apply some abiding laws to protect the sea. It is time to elect smart people who can handle their job well and who can think five steps ahead of these type of issues.
Your disregard and lock or responsibility when you leave these nets makes me think that you are not very good at your job and I’m not referring to the ignorant people who leave the nets but the government who aren’t smart enough to apply some abiding laws to protect the sea. It is time to elect smart people who can handle their job well and who can think five steps ahead of these type of issues.
The world and everything in it is falling apart.
Please put people in charge who care. —- And know what they are doing.
They need to clean up the ocean of plastic/trash/dumping of radiation and other waste and fishing nets etc. The ocean is not a dumping area/trash pit for the world. God bless the sea life. We need fish oil/krill oil/Coral Ca and more to be healthy and need the oceans to support life for sea creatures/us. Take the wasted government money for Fake Russia investigation and fake research etc and use it to help the oceans so sharks and more are ok.
Make it illegal to dump these nets.
Another world sad problem! No more nets now!
Get rid of nets NOW!!!
Every animal is either part of the food chain or contributes to the environment in positive ways. These immense gill nets are destroying the natural order and a nightmare to ocean animals. The seas are already over fished without killing tons of other marine life.
Sincerely,
Ali Mosa
Sharks are our brothers and sisters …Respect them and their lives
If you’re a fisherman, don’t you want to make sure not to piss in your own bed?!? How many brains does it take to figure this out?
Dump this nets now !!!!!!!
Make it illegal to dump these nets.
Poor creatures. Humans are not only destroying themselves but everything else around them.
Let’s all help!
How sad that we don’t care about what can happen with these nets! I hope they can safely remove that net and any others that are found!
So horrible! We must protect ALL animals AND mammals!
shameful , STOP KILLING SHARKS