Fisheries management

Capacity building in community-based management

The Gulf of Carpentaria (the ‘Gulf’) spans Queensland and the Northern Territory in northern Australia and comprises approximately 3500 km of coastline. The Gulf is a large shallow embayment that includes the Arafura Sea to the west and north, and Torres Strait to the northeast. The Gulf is extremely remote, sparsely populated, and few coastal developments exist. The waters of the Gulf experience high turbidity and seasonally high nutrient levels which support an array of benthic and pelagic species. Accordingly, it is a haven for a wide variety of marine and coastal life and includes six of the world’s seven marine turtle species, and four sawfish species, many of which are in decline globally. Although the Gulf is highly remote and should be unspoiled, the coastline is littered with fishing nets (ghost nets) which drift on monsoonal and trade wind currents from outside Australian waters. Over 95% of ghost nets entering the coastal regions of northern Australia originate from South East Asia.

Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been discarded, lost, or simply abandoned at sea. The term ‘ghost nets’ refers to the derelict action of the net; fishing ‘as if by an unseen hand’. Ghost nets are particularly destructive due to their ability to continually catch and kill marine life for months or years after being discarded. The majority of these ghost nets are part of vast rafts of marine debris arriving from South East Asia. A clockwise gyre current in the Gulf exacerbates the problem by hindering the ghost nets from escaping the region, and thus, the nets become locked into an extended cyclic period of ghost net fishing until they are washed ashore. In 2000, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Dhimurru Land Management Aboriginal Corporation, and Conservation Volunteers Australia, surveying 9 km of beach found approximately 56 derelict nets per km. Annual surveys in subsequent years have identify the number of nets washing ashore to be between 35 and 65 nets per km. 

In response to the concerns about the number of ‘ghost nets’ that were washed ashore, in 2004, 18 indigenous communities of the Gulf region established the Carpentaria Ghost Nets Programme. The aim of this programme was to (i) find a solution to the ghost net problem; (ii) identify the source of ghost nets; and (iii) ameliorate their impacts.

Working in remote areas brings many challenges including seasonal restrictions due to poor road surfaces, limited access to equipment, limited numeracy and literacy in English, and limited access to ‘workforce on demand’. The CGNP worked to overcome these issues by:
1). Developing a culture of engagement built on a solid foundation of trust [Principle 2]
2). Providing resources/information/infrastructure [Principle 7], and
3). Building capacity for rangers [Principle 8].

The success of this programme to date has been instrumental in building the rangers capacity and knowledge. These include project planning and implementation, data collection, and ghost net identification. Opening communication channels between culturally disparate communities creates opportunities for the rangers to exchange information, and steer the course of action and direction of the programme and their own futures [Principle 7][Principle 4].
The CGNP coincided with an upsurge of activity related to the desire for Indigenous peoples to work on country and be involved in conservation and land management activities. This created an impetus to establish a network of Indigenous rangers. To date, more than 90 working rangers and more than 50 community members have been trained in the programme. Moreover, the 90 rangers involved in this programme have now acquired new technology and skills that can be transferrable to other job sectors. Similarly, the awareness of the ghost net issue has raised the public profile of the rangers as ‘doers’ and has increased the desire of other people in the community to participate in the project [Principle 3]. As of November 2009, approximately 5532 ghost nets (90,000 m of net) have been removed from both the shallow waters along the Gulf and the shoreline [Principle 11].
The CGNP project has also developed a novel industry (GhostNet Gear) which provides income for artwork where the nets are fashioned into baskets, bags, wall hangings and many other products. This has also brought media recognition at the regional, state and international level about the ghost net issue. In fact, information CGNP has provided to the Australian government has already increased surveillance and deterrence in the bilateral regions of the Arafura Sea of illegal, unregistered, and unreported fishing vessels. 
The current focus for CGNP is to not only increase community engagement, but to identify ways to improve fishing practices both locally and internationally. One key response is to facilitate a cross-cultural exchange program between sea fishers and rangers so they both understand the challenges and impacts ghost nets have on the marine ecosystem, their cultures, and their livelihoods [Principle 2].
CGNP are currently in partnership with Indonesian sea turtle conservation and a monitoring Non-Government Organisation in Aceh, Sumatra. The aim of this partnership is to acquire information and data on ghost net activity, and wildlife entanglement to be provided to relevant agencies including the Coordinating Body to the Seas of the East Asia (COBSEA) unit of the United Nations Environmental Program. This is to assist in the development of preventative strategies to stop the source of ghost nets by international agencies. CGNP are also actively working with the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to improve data collection and analysis to better understand and address ghost nets [Principle 5]. 

The role of providing timely feedback on the project’s development was essential in understanding the local region and subsequent local needs. This creates an engagement that is built on trust and learning and aids in the partners working together to achieve common goals [Principle 2][Principle 6]. Capacity building enables the rangers to perform other important tasks such as ‘caring for country’ through border protection, quarantine services and control of feral animals and invasive weed species. Importantly, these tasks foster a sense of ownership and pride in their lands and livelihoods [Principle 8].

Initially the project began by building a local response to ghost net impacts in the Gulf region; however, it quickly generated significant collaboration across a large geographical area of northern Australia and among many disparate Indigenous communities and partners. This network has generated notable engagement, participation, commitment and livelihood benefits [Principle 1][Principle 3]. An important lesson learned in these processes is that ‘one cannot isolate the environment from culture and socioeconomic issues of the region” (see Gunn et al., 2010).