A growing number of strange-looking devices are washing up on Australia’s east coast and Great Barrier Reef, confusing beachgoers and worrying conservationists.
Wunjunga – An increasing number of mysterious, round objects that look like a cross between a land mine and a robot vacuum cleaner are washing up on the coasts of north-eastern Australia, just off the Great Barrier Reef, a designated World Heritage Site in Danger. One could even think of special spy devices or mini UFOs. What is behind the mysterious phenomenon that is causing concern among walkers, beachgoers and conservationists?
Reports are piling up: more and more strange objects washed up on the beach
How ABC News reported, the flat objects date according to the non-profit Tangaroa Blue Foundation, which works to monitor marine debris, from the South Pacific, where they are used by fisheries, particularly longline fisheries, to track fish. The floating sonars are being seen more and more frequently in Australian waters.
‘Worrying’: Mysterious objects are washing up on Australia’s coast
This week one of the mysterious looking buoys on a beach at Wunjunga in the Burdekin Shire south of Townsville was inspected Australia washed up. For professional fisherman Chris Bolton, who operates between Cairns and Townsville, the sonar buoys are now part of everyday life: “We find them very regularly now, at least once a week,” says Bolton, adding: “It’s certainly a concern. It’s pollution.” Last researchers discovered dangerous bacterial hotspots on microplastics in the sea.
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Marine conservation organization is now using the objects to track down marine debris
The foundation’s executive director, Heidi Tait, said some of them have even been found in southern New South Wales. “There are estimates from the area of the South Pacific fisheries that between 45 and 65,000 of these devices are used annually.” The non-profit Tangaroa Blue Foundation now wants to turn the problem into a solution – and uses dozens of these devices to detect marine debris. Above all Plastic waste in the sea is becoming an increasing problem – Current studies of the environmental organization World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) drew a shocking conclusion.
Sonar buoys that pollute the ocean are now used in the fight against marine debris
The buoys are from Tangaroa Blue with the permission of the manufacturer satellite link reused and given to commercial fishing fleets who can attach them to oversized pieces of debris for tracking and later removal. “If they come across a ghost net or a piece of debris that can’t be immediately retrieved from the water because it’s too big, they can put these tags on and we can track them,” Tait said ABC News. The first recycled sonar buoys to fight marine litter are already in use, reports Tangaroa Blue on social media: “Exciting times! The reused buoys are working and testing has begun”.
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