Latest news with #EmmaKark
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
New bins rolled out in national parks to tackle deadly Aussie issue
New bins will start appearing in select national parks in an attempt to tackle a deadly Aussie issue. This month, 12 fishing tackle bins will be installed throughout NSW with the goal of deterring fishers from dumping discarded fishing line and tackle — a sadly common act that has a devastating impact on the environment and wildlife. The NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) announced on Thursday it had teamed up with OzFish Unlimited — the country's only fishing conservation charity — to roll out the bins at various locations popular among anglers. The first one has been installed in Bongil Bongil National Park on the Mid North Coast, with the rest set to follow in the coming week. The 'tangle bins' will also be placed in select areas of the Royal National Park, Bents Basin State Conservation Area, Georges River, Kosciuszko National Park and the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, a NPWS spokesperson confirmed to Yahoo News. Emma Kark, OzFish tackling litter manager, told Yahoo the bins will be monitored regularly. 'Tangle Bins provide opportunities for recreational fishers to safely and easily discard fishing gear they don't need or have collected from their favourite fishing spots,' she said. 'As climate change increases the frequency and severity of threats to Australia's waterways, there has never been a more crucial time to take care of the places we love to fish.' Discarded fishing gear continues to pose fatal risk to wildlife Discarded fishing gear is not only a significant source of pollution in the country's waterways, but entanglement and ingestion can injure or kill marine animals. Yahoo has reported on countless incidents of wildlife being caught up in fishing lines and hooks, including a corella left hanging upside down for days from a tree, a baby dolphin tangled in multiple strands of fishing line, and a turtle who was left fighting for its life after ingesting a hook. In February, a platypus turned up dead in NSW as a result of entanglement, and last month worried Sydneysiders called for help after spotting an injured cormorant at Balmoral Beach. While incidents like these are shocking to the public, they're an occurrence that wildlife rescuers see daily, prompting an urgent plea to fishers to 'leave no trace'. 'Fishing line entanglement is massive in the oceans and rivers... A lot of wildlife drown from fishing lines and hooks because they get caught up and they can't get out of the water,' rescuer William Watson previously told Yahoo after wading in a neck-high river to rescue a tangled ibis. 'Stomach-churning' reason behind popular Aussie tourist show Shocking find inside bird highlights worrying beach trend Tragic scene on Aussie roadside prompts urgent plea Additional Return & Earn bins installed at national park It's understood the fishing tackle bin initiative is part of NPWS's litter prevention strategy. In addition, the organisation has installed 13 Return & Earn baskets in Georges River National Park so it's easier for visitors to separate recyclables and cash-in cans and bottles. More Return & Earn bins will be installed in other locations in the coming months. 'The NPWS is doing its bit to reduce plastic waste through its litter prevention program,' a spokesperson for the organisation told Yahoo. 'This program is essential to tackle harmful waste through an ongoing coordinated approach to litter prevention within NSW national parks, with the primary objective of reducing rubbish at trial sites by 50 per cent.' Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Aussie fishermen warned about destructive habit that's leaving behind 'devastating' consequences
Aussie fishermen are being urged to follow the rules when it comes to one popular catching method, after a 'huge clean-up' of Queensland waterways uncovered a haul of illegal activity. Queensland Boating and Fisheries Patrol [QBFP] officers recently removed 54 abandoned and illegal crab pots from rivers and creeks in the Whitsunday area, reminding crabbers to be wary of the rules. Neglected pots are referred to as 'ghost pots' and pose a serious threat to the marine environment in more ways than one, OzFish's Litter Project Manager Emma Kark told Yahoo News. 'The biggest issue is definitely the animals. If they're left behind, it's possible for animals to swim in there and if they are in fresh water it can be things like platypus and the rakalis. It's very devastating when that happens,' she said. 'They basically just keep catching things and no one is pulling it up to release them.' In another major threat to both animals and humans, once the pots start to break down they can 'leach micro-plastics into the waterways', Emma said. There are an estimated 174 trillion pieces of micro plastics currently in the ocean, and that number is only expected to rise. OzFish is currently working with fishermen to make sure crab pots are being monitored and not lost, as can happen in big swells like the ones Tropical Cyclone Alfred is currently bringing to South East Queensland and northern NSW. "Storm events can often pull things away, bad weather too," Emma said. In 2024, 1,812 crab pots and 334 freshwater traps were seized and removed from the water across Queensland. In 2023, Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services along with the QBFP officers removed 195 illegal crab pots from the Pumicestone Passage in Morton Bay Marine Park. They removed 42 turtles that had become trapped or tangled in the pots — and most did not survive. During CleanUp Australia Day on the weekend, OzFish volunteers at 16 locations removed four tonnes of litter – their biggest haul to date. Among the plastic bottles and food wrappers were 144 bait bags, 750m of fishing line and at least one crab pot. But to their surprise, less than 1 per cent of the litter collected was fishing-related. In Queensland, a person cannot possess more than four crab pots Each crab pot must have a tag attached with the surname and full street address of the owner The pot must be attached by a rope to either a float measuring at least 15cm in all dimensions, or a fixed object above the water like a tree or a jetty The float or the rope above the waterline must also be tagged with a name and address Unmarked pots are illegal If you see a crab pot that you believe is abandoned or illegal, record its location and contact your state's fisheries department. Touching or interfering with someone else's crab pots could land you in hot water. In January, two people were fined $1,613 each for interfering with crab pots in the Moreton Bay region that didn't belong to them. 'Protecting our marine resources and respecting others' property is essential,' Fisheries Queensland said in a Facebook post at the time. 'It is everyone's responsibility to follow the rules — if it's not your crab pot, don't touch it.' Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
