by Max Martin on 9 April 2024

• An international team has spotted 144 animals belonging to 35 species across India trapped in derelict fishing gear, as part of a social media study.
• Ghost nets are an indicator of the massive litter menace in India and it is the second-largest contributor to mismanaged plastic in the ocean.
• To address the problem, raising awareness, repurposing old gear, and implementing stricter regulations are essential, researchers say.

A white-throated kingfisher, a horseshoe crab, a whale shark and an Asian elephant are some of the species found entangled in ghost nets in India, mostly along the coasts.

An international team has spotted 144 animals belonging to 35 species, 13 of them endangered or vulnerable, entangled in abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) in the coastal waters and freshwater bodies of India, as part of a social media study.

Such derelict fishing gear includes nets, lines, pots and traps, often made of durable, water-resistant and light plastics. These plastic-made fishing gear float in the ocean for years, trapping or getting eaten by fish and other animals or carrying alien species, scientists said.

The study led by Kannan Gunasekaran, a marine biologist at the Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, scanned Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube posts from 2012 to 2023. The results were published in the journal Biological Conservation in March 2024.

“We looked at entanglement sightings on social media, listed species affected, and identified potential hotspots,” Gunasekaran told Mongabay-India. Most of the reports came from the east coast.

Diverse species

Gunasekaran and colleagues found 44 sea turtles, including 37 olive ridleys (Lepidochelys olivacea) and 33 fish, mostly whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), the largest living fish. There were five green turtles (Chelonia mydas), a leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), and a hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricate).

Among the marine mammals, the researchers found nine spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) and a humpback dolphin (Sousa plumbea), a little Indian porpoise (Neophocaena phocaenoides), four sea cows (Dugong dugon), and three whales – a Bryde’s whale (Balaenoptera brydei), a dwarf sperm whale (Kogia sima) and another Balaenoptera. A fifth of all cases of entanglement were marine mammals.

Other animals trapped in ALDFG included crabs, sponges, and, less frequently, seahorses (Hippocampus kuda) and sea snakes (Hydrophis schistosus). Most of the trappings in the freshwater bodies involved birds, including spot-billed pelican (Pelecanus philippensis) and white-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis).

More than half of all entangled animals (73) were dead, and the fate of 71 found alive was not known. The elephant was found alive, caught in a net in the Ramganga river that flows through the Corbett National Park, he added.

The litter problem 

The spread of ghost nets on the east and west coasts and freshwater bodies and the diversity of the animals they entangled indicate the scale of the litter menace in India, Gunasekaran and colleagues noted in their paper. India is the second-largest contributor to mismanaged plastic in the ocean. Out of 5.6 million tonnes of plastic waste generated annually, 0.6 million tonnes end up in the ocean, the paper noted. Rivers, lakes, and wetlands also receive massive amounts of plastic waste.

A large share of this litter involves ghost nets, a global environmental problem. “The issue poses a severe threat to India’s marine ecosystems. It not only affects endangered species but also impacts the fishing industry’s sustainability and economy,” said P R Jayachandran, a marine ecologist focusing on the Kerala waters. “Over 90% of trapped species are commercially valuable, exacerbating the financial toll.”

A recent study in Kerala revealed that, on average, each year, 11.6% of the total gear used is lost, 7.5% is abandoned, and 2.3% is discarded – that is roughly a fifth of an average of over 500 kg of gear each vessel carries. About 60% of the ALDFG comprised lost gear, as the study noted.

As such, about 5.7% of fishing nets, 8.6% of traps, and 29% of fishing lines get lost in the ocean, annually adding about 1.14 million tonnes of derelict gear to the oceans of the world, studies show.

The reason for abandoning or losing gear differs across types of boats and fishing. Bad weather is a key reason. “Drawing a net can take one or two hours of hard work. When there is high wind, sometimes we have to cut off the net cast in the sea and come ashore quickly,” said Davidson Anthony Adima, a fisherman from Fathimapurm village in Thiruvananthapuram.

Adima and colleagues operate a 34-foot boat with twin outboard engines, and each of their nets can cost Rs. one lakh or more. Discarding them involves huge losses, and the cut-off nets float, trapping fish and other creatures across great distances.

“Sometimes ghost nets get spread over parts of underwear reefs that are rich fishing grounds, scaring fish away,” Adima said. Traditional raft fishers said the best way to fish over reefs involves the hook and line method, an eco-friendly fishing technique. Or nets need to be carefully cast beside or over the reefs without getting too close, the fishers said. However, such precision fishing requires a good knowledge of the underwater structures, an exclusive domain of the local veterans. “Some fishermen cast their nets too close to the rocky reefs, and they get entangled on the jagged reef edges,” Adima said.

There are other underwater obstructions, such as discarded boats and shipwrecks, that eventually become underwater habitats for flora and fauna that attract fish. The Kerala study noted that different kinds of underwater obstruction were the most common reason with regard to trammel nets.

“Trawl and shore seine were abandoned due to bad weather, whereas ring seine was abandoned due to attacks by marine animals,” the Kerala paper notes. “Regarding gill nets and mini trawls, gear conflict was the most common reason for abandonment…Several reasons, such as cetacean attacks, jellyfish blooms, and pufferfish bites, were reported to result in the huge loss of ring seine nets.”

A review and meta-analysis found that while bad weather led to the reasons for gear loss (69%),  gear conflict was the second most common cause (57%), with over a fifth of all studies reporting loss due to conflict between towed and static gears. Hitting against obstructions on the sea bottom was the third most common cause of gear loss reported (31%).

Ghost nets galore

Ghost nets are often found covering reefs. “I have found ghost nets on our reefs while diving,” said Kumar Sahayaraju, a fisherman and an ocean scientist from Thiruvananthapuram. Another diver and coordinator of the conservation NGO Friends of  Marine Life, Robert Panipilla, said his team often found ALDFG during their dives off the shores of Thiruvananthapuram. One brief clean-up drive yielded over 400 kg of derelict gear, he said.

In February, remnants of ghost nets washed up on the shores of Puthenthope village in Thiruvananthapuram. Looking at the girth of the ropes, local fishers, mostly raft and shore seine operators who use traditional gear, said they were probably discarded from large vessels that sometimes intrude their coast from elsewhere. As such, marine litter can travel 100s of miles, scientists note.

Puthenthope is a nesting site for sea turtles, including Olive Ridleys. Local observers said turtles sometimes get entangled in discarded nets.

ALDFGs are dangerous as they entangle marine life about four times more than all other marine debris combined. The Kerala study notes that fishers often discard damaged nets onto beaches or in the sea as there is no proper disposal mechanism and it takes too much effort.

Scientists say many countries and regions lack observation, monitoring, surveillance or enforcement systems to address the ALDFG problem. They call for better data and governance frameworks.

“To address this, raising awareness, repurposing old gear, and implementing stricter regulations are essential,” Jayachandran said. “Collaboration among various stakeholders is crucial, including NGOs, researchers, governments, and international bodies like the Global Ghost Gear Initiative, to safeguard India’s coastal communities and marine biodiversity.”

Read more: Traditional raft fishing threatened as reefs choke on plastic

Banner image: Sometimes, the ghost nets get spread over parts of underwear reefs that are rich fishing grounds, scaring fish away, say the fishermen. Photo by Tim Sheerman-Chase/Wikimedia Commons.

April 9, 2024

BY 

KITTY BLOCK AND SARA AMUNDSON

SHARE https://www.humanesociety.org/blog/horrific-wolf-killing-wyoming-shows-urgent-need-increased-protections

Gray wolves in some U.S. states experience extremely brutal treatment, as a recent alleged wolf killing in Wyoming shows. 

Alamy Stock Photo

Last week, reports surfaced that a man in Wyoming allegedly ran down a wolf with a snowmobile. He then reportedly taped the injured wolf’s mouth shut, paraded the helpless and terrified animal around at a local bar and posed for a photo with the injured wolf before going outside and killing the animal.  According to news reports, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department cited the man only for possession of a live wild animal and levied a paltry $250 fine before washing its hands of the matter.

A mere slap on the wrist is unacceptable, and we’re calling on local authorities to prosecute this individual under state felony animal cruelty laws.

No animal should be forced to endure the extreme level of stress, fear and agony this wolf experienced. While the appalling events described in news reports about this incident are extreme—and they were brought to light only because of an anonymous tip—this incident serves as a glaring reminder that many wolves in Wyoming and throughout the Northern Rockies experience similar brutalities. About 85% of Wyoming is designated as a “predator zone,” where wolves can be killed in virtually any manner and number any time of the year. They are frequently run down with snowmobiles, ATVs and pickup trucks, gunned down from helicopters and airplanes, or suffer excruciating pain and death in steel-jawed leghold traps and strangling neck snares. And there are no bag limits, either—meaning trophy hunters and trappers can kill as many animals as they can find.

Every wolf killed by a trophy hunter or trapper is an intelligent individual, often with a rich social and family life. Wolf packs are families, consisting of parents, pups and older siblings who help take care of the young. Adult wolves have even been observed bringing sticks and other toys back to pups, sacrificing themselves to protect family members, and letting small pups win play fights. Due to their close, complex and interdependent social structure, killing a single wolf can have devastating and reverberating consequences for the whole pack. It can lead to the orphaning of pups, the abandonment of territory and the collapse of the family.

In Wyoming’s predator zone, entire wolf families—including pups—can be killed in their dens. The same is true in Idaho. Wolves in the West—and the Great Lakes states, when they can be legally hunted and trapped—are also often killed using night vision equipment, packs of dogs, bait and electronic calls that mimic prey animals or young in distress. Bounty-like payments are made in Idaho and Montana for dead wolves. Wolves caught in traps and snares in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming are left to struggle against the brutal device for hours or days before the trapper returns to kill them. The brutality many wolves face is overwhelming.

Such killing practices are not traditional, subsistence hunting methods. They are deliberate and heinous acts of cruelty. The fact that states allow such methods to kill wolves only feeds into the sentiments of many trophy hunters that wolves deserve no compassion or humane treatment. It may even increase poaching.

While it’s important to protect wolves and other wild animals for their sake and for the benefits they bring to our lives, our environment, and our economy, there are also serious public safety reasons to support increased protections. Violence does not exist in a vacuum—animal abusers can also abuse people. There is a correlation between committing acts of intentional cruelty to animals and committing violence against humans, and law enforcement is taking it seriously. The FBI is now tracking incidences of crimes against animals in addition to other serious crimes like murder, burglary and domestic abuse.  

The outrage over the torment of this wolf demonstrates the overwhelming public support to protect wolves from the persecution they endure under state management each year. We are working closely with our allies on the ground in Wyoming to see justice done here and seek stronger protections for all wolves.

This incident and the ongoing war on wolves is why we are fighting for federal protections for wolves in the Northern Rockies in court. Reckless state management isn’t only cruel, it threatens the viability of the wolf population in the region. Protection under the Endangered Species Act would take jurisdiction for managing wolves out of the hands of the Northern Rockies states that have proven to be mercilessly intent on exposing them to all kinds of cruelty.

You can call upon the Wyoming Office of Tourism to demand changes to Wyoming’s draconian, backward laws as well as state policies targeting wolves. State lawmakers must protect animals, including Wyoming’s native wildlife, not only from wanton acts of cruelty but from reckless public policy that allows cruel killing methods to continue.

Sara Amundson is president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund. 

Protecting Wildlife , Banning Trophy Hunting

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States and CEO of Humane Society International, the international affiliate of the HSUS