In Malaysia, NGOs free corals from “ghost” fishing nets

These are nets abandoned by fishermen, real marine waste which covers coral reefs and degrades the ecosystem.

It’s a problem that affects many places on the planet: ghost fishing nets. These abandoned nets have consequences on our ecosystems. To fight against this marine “waste”, many associations organize dives to recover the nets. In Malaysia, initiatives are still too rare, according to activists.

In Lumut, a coastal town in the state of Perak, Malaysian Azrai has created an NGO dedicated to this problem. It dives more than ten meters deep to clear fishing nets and free corals. An operation he would like to perform more often: “There are new nets underwater, we often discover them and sometimes they are old nets.”

The operation to remove this marine waste is tedious and there are sometimes not enough volunteers ready to help Azrai and its local NGO. “If we have enough arms, we go down underwater, with about ten people. Sometimes it’s much less: last time, there were only three of ushe regrets. The operation depends on the number of volunteers we have, we can do two to three dives. But it takes time. On each dive, we must rest for around 45 minutes, or even an hour, to equalize and pool our efforts.”

10% of marine litter is ghost nets

Ghost fishing nets are nets abandoned by fishermen. Anuar Abdullah is founder of the Ocean Quest Global organization. According to him, this problem closely affects that of overfishing. “Losing a net is not the goal of any fisherman. But the ocean is running out, and fishermen have to move closer and closer to the reefs, he remarks. And most of the time, they get stuck with their net. When the net gets stuck, they have no choice but to cut it and leave it there.”

According to Anuar Abdullah, he hopes that other initiatives will emerge in Malaysia to fight against ghost fishing nets. This cause is essential, because they represent 10% of marine waste and constitute a certain danger for corals, capable of capturing, releasing and accumulating carbon in various forms.

“How can coral develop when the reef is covered with nets? Slowly, it is deteriorating, as is the number of marine life that depends on this space.”

Anuar Abdullah, from the NGO Ocean Quest Global

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“Where do these nets go? Most settle on carbon sinks and interrupt the entire coral growth processhe laments. So we can do whatever we want to try to reduce carbon, but below the sea there are millions of years of accumulated carbon being released into the sea by these materials, it’s very unfortunate.”