Abandoned nets on Pulau Semakau (1 Jul 2017)

Recently, a team of volunteers together with a few staff from Nparks did a site survey on Pulau Semakau for abandoned nets and collecting data on the net together with what is trapped in it.

The team split into 2 groups, each group helping to comb different sectors of the shore. One group who combed the mangrove areas found a few nets entangled with the mangroves roots.  One of the longest net found was about 25m in length. A horseshoe crab was rescued from it. Here's more on the operations that took place.





Another group that combed the high shore found 2 huge pile of nets being abandoned. The nets were heavy and required few person to carry. There were no marine creatures trapped in the nets.

More nets were found along the shores.

Details of mesh are as per below. This is a monofilament net.  It was hard to estimate the length of the nets as they were all folded up in one big bundle.

As tide was too low for the dinghy to come in to collect the nets we have no choice but to put back the 2 huge pile of  nets to its original location.

This was how low tide was that day, guess we will need to plan for a higher tide in order for the dinghy to get nearer to shore to have the abandoned nets removed the next round.

Once again, thanks to all who have helped out in one way or another in this project.