MIRI: A total 381kg of ghost nets have been removed from the bottom of the sea of Miri Sibuti Coral Reef National Park since the ‘Ops Ghost Nets’ hunting and reef cleaning initiated in 2018 by the Northern Sarawak Journalists Association (NSJA).
Ghost nets are fishing nets left or lost in the sea by fishermen. These nets are often nearly invisible in the dim light.
According to NSJA’s president Andy Jong, in their recent mission which was held on Wednesday in conjunction with the Sarawak Day celebration, a team of eight divers managed to remove ghost nets weighing 51kg from the area.
“It’s a salvage operation carried out for left-behind fishing gear within the location situated at about 45 minutes by boat from Marina jetty,” Jong explained.
On Wednesday, several members of NSJA together with other volunteers were heading to the spot for their mission dubbed ‘Ops Sunday Reef’ (name of one of the reefs within the area).
A simple flag off was done by Sarawak Transport Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin at Marina jetty.
In their previous missions, the divers had carried out two similar operations, but in different sites, dubbed ‘Ops Nemo City’ whereby they removed a total 330kg of ghost nets.
