Australia's northern coastline is turning into a rubbish tip where turtles and dolphins are being strangled to death, according to the latest World Wide Fund for Nature research. The report, Marine Debris in the Arafura Sea, says most of the rubbish comes from Indonesian, Taiwanese and Australian fish and prawn trawlers and gill-netting vessels. The rubbish includes light globes, footwear, television sets, gas cylinders and, most damagingly, items from fish operations - nets, plastic packing straps and synthetic ropes.
Fishing nets can maim and kill marine wildlife through entanglement and strangulation.
According to the report, more than 120 entangled marine turtles have been recorded on one small stretch of beach on the Arnhem Land coastline. About 50per cent of these turtles were dead when located and it is impossible to guess how many others simply drifted along the coastline while entangled in nets without being washed ashore. The report said that entangled animals were often killed through eating the rubbish, or became easy prey through immobilisation, or drowned due to exhaustion. The rubbish had injured humans, was dangerous to divers, and fouled ship rudders and propellers. The report said the waste had been dumped despite international regulations and protocols.