By Malcolm Holland
November 06, 2009 11:00pm

THEY have decimated the waters of the northern hemisphere, now it’s feared huge European commercial fishing boats are plundering the high seas around Australia.

Two Spanish “factory fishing” boats have been deploying huge nets – or gillnets – between Australia and New Zealand.

And a massive gillnet, more than 130km long, has been discovered off southwestern Australia. Environmental group WWF Australia said yesterday it was possibly a “ghost net” – a gillnet which has been lost and drifts aimlessly, snaring and killing marine life for months or years.

WWF Australia and TRAFFIC, a group which monitors wildlife trade, believe northern hemisphere fishing fleets are targeting the relatively fish-rich southern seas as their home waters become unviable from decades of overfishing.

Read full article from the Courier Mail.

Filed under: Ali Perkins, Conservation, News/Current Affairs