The indigenous peoples of Australia are cleaning beaches of ghost fishing nets. These trap animal species such as turtles and sharks, collect waste in the water and carry it ashore, where it crumbles into microplastics that remain in the environment for centuries.

Faced with this emergency, indigenous communities are organising dedicated ranger teams that comb hundreds of kilometres of coastline and clean up the environment. It is long and gruelling work, carried out with the support of technological tools such as drones, and has taken on an international dimension through the involvement of other countries, such as Indonesia, to prevent the abandonment of fishing nets.

Fishing nets and other waste

Ghost fishing nets are accumulating on Australia's beaches. They have not been abandoned by local fishermen — not least because they are found mainly in protected areas of Arnhem Land or on Groote Eylandt, where access is reserved exclusively for Aboriginal peoples, who hold a sacred respect for their land. They come instead from South-East Asia, where they are abandoned at sea by fishermen and carried by currents to Australia's north-western coast.

Australia has a serious litter problem along its beaches. The situation is most dramatic on the islands, and according to a study published in the scientific journal Nature, on the Cocos Islands alone in 2019 one million shoes, 370,000 toothbrushes and 414 million plastic items were found, totalling 238 tonnes of waste. In recent years the situation has improved, to the extent that a 2025 study by Australia's national science agency certified a one-third reduction in pollution along its coastlines.

Problems remain, and fishing nets are one of today's most pressing concerns. In some cases they are found as hard plastic blocks after someone has tried to make them disappear by burning and melting them down. Once on the beach, these nets crumble into microplastics that can take centuries to decompose. In other cases they trap waste and marine animal species that are then dragged ashore, disrupting ecosystems and increasing pollution.

The mission of the indigenous rangers

Cleaning Australia's north-western beaches of ghost fishing nets has become an increasingly widespread activity among local Aboriginal communities. Teams of dedicated environmental rangers comb stretches of coastline extending for hundreds of kilometres, using a variety of equipment. At sea, barges fitted with winches locate fishing nets snagged on the seabed and hoist them to the surface. In the skies, drones equipped with artificial intelligence spot the nets from above.

The rangers of the Anindilyakwa Aboriginal people began working in collaboration with Charles Darwin University, and the use of drones has significantly simplified their work — the number of ghost fishing nets identified has quadrupled. The rangers of the Yolŋu people, on the Gove Peninsula, removed around 13 tonnes of marine debris in 2025, including numerous fishing nets.

Fundraising and cooperation

At the most polluted points along Australia's coastlines, an average of three tonnes of debris per kilometre have been recorded. One of the challenges when fishing nets are found is knowing what to do with them. Storage depots and landfill sites are now full, and even when space is found, managers often refuse them out of concern that they may contain toxic materials such as lead. In some cases the nets are donated to local artists who use them in their weaving works, but supply far exceeds demand.

At the end of 2025, the Australian government stepped in to help. 25 million dollars were allocated to purchase the equipment needed to clean the beaches, and new storage facilities were created. Part of the funding was directed towards prevention, engaging the South-East Asian countries responsible for discarding fishing nets in awareness campaigns aimed at their fishermen and in effective monitoring systems. The goal of the Australian government and the Aboriginal peoples of the north-western coastlines is to eliminate entirely the ghost nets arriving from international sources by 2030.