Before the 1960s, the fishing nets were made from ropes but after that, they were made using nylon. Since these types of fishing nets were cheap and they don’t decompose, they became the choice of fishermen and fishing companies.
These nets that are lost/thrown in the ocean came to be known as Ghost Nets. They don’t just stay in a place, they travel wide and hurt more life. Whenever a fish, turtle, dolphin etc come across these nets, there are chances for it to get caught. Some of them get choked and some get stuck for several months and die as a result of starvation. Reports suggest that hundreds of millions of marine animals are killed or injured every year due to fishing nets pollution. Among the frequently hurt aquatic life by Ghost Net is Turtles.
Incidents of aquatic lives getting hurt by ghost nets are not so far; we just need to take a look nearby. On January 21, 2022, a juvenile Olive Ridley sea turtle got caught in a massive Ghost Net 5 nautical miles off the Pazaya Nadu Kuppam, Chengalpattu.
Sakaravarthi, a member of Tree Foundation – Sea Turtle Protection Force found this turtle trapped. He rescued it. Based on its physical condition, this turtle was assessed to be entangled in the net for several months.
It suffered near-lethal injuries to the flesh. The entanglement had caused amputation of its right front flipper and deep cut across the neck.
It was given care by the Rescue and Rehab team from Tree Foundation. It has been named Saki, and it was recently been deemed fit to be released to its natural habitat by veterinarians. It is going to live its second life from 20th of April.
Karthikeya Sivasenapathy, Secretary,DMK Environment Wing will be the Chief Guest of this event. He said “All living things in the world can live without man, but man cannot live in a world without other creatures.” True to what he said, we need to give more care to the environment and all life forms to live suitably in this world. It’s time that we stopped hurting lives.
The menace caused by Ghost Nets need to end now!