‘Ghost net’ at
Hanauma Bay gives
biologists a scare

Star-Bulletin

A team of aquatic biologists at first feared the worst: a large "ghost net" threatening endangered turtles and seals at Hanauma Bay.

Ghost nets are abandoned or lost fishing nets cast by fishermen.

When it was removed from a reef at Witches Brew yesterday, though,the team discovered "it wasn't that large of a net after all," said Deborah Ward, information specialist for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Ward said the net recovered -- actually several nets that became entangled -- weighed about 300 pounds. Some of it was caught in the reef. Other parts were floating.

Biologists said the mass drifted in from the sea and apparently had been floating for some time before attaching to the reef.

"Entangled ghost nets is a continuing problem that frequently occurs statewide at nearly all our beaches and bays," said Bill Devick, acting administrator of the Aquatic Resources Division.

"Just before Christmas, DLNR pulled a similar net off the reefs in Kaneohe Bay that weighed approximately 1,000 pounds. We also know of a similar net now stuck off Lanikai which, due to weather and location, hasn't been retrieved yet," he said.

Devick said federal fisheries experts estimate there may be 70,000 pieces of ghost nets in the northwest Hawaiian islands alone.