Anindilyakwa Land Council
The Anindilyakwa (pronounced Anin-dil-yak-wa) rangers are based on Groote Eylandt and Bickerton Island on the north-western edge of the Gulf of Carpentaria. They have a staff of 8, including a co-ordinator and seven indigenous employees. Their area of responsibility includes over 40 islands covering an area of approximately 3000 square km. The Anindilyakwa people were one of the first groups to participate in marine debris and ghost net surveys.
Since they began this work in 1997 they’ve made major contributions to the collection of ghost net data. This information has been used to identify the sources of nets, resulting in management that has seen a dramatic decline in the 20-30 % of nets that used to come from Australian fisherman. They look forward to one day preventing the littler of ghost nets form other sources. Anindilyakwa people are proud of these achievements and continue to collect ghost nets on a weekly basis as part of the Carpenteria Ghost net program. Since this project began they’ve already collected hundreds of kilograms of nets and cleaned many kilometers of beach.
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