Greetings from Croker Island
Nancy returned last week after a couple of weeks in Darwin spending time with our grandson (and our daughter in law and son). This morning she enjoyed a second mother's day at Croker Island - she deserved it - all mothers are precious people.
A couple of weeks ago we discovered a large ghost net near McClure Island, east of Croker Island (see previous post). Australian Biosecurity and NT Fisheries requested that we return and attached a tracker onto the net - for two reasons. A net of this size is a marine navigation hazard and secondly Biosecurity had concerns that there may be some 'nasties' living on or in the net that we don't want in Australia. Below ranger Clayton attaches a tracker to the net. Before this the rangers had tried to remove the net from the reef however our vessel did not enough power. A Navy or Customs vessel will now attempt to remove it when they are next in the area.
The rangers observed what appeared to be turtle remains caught in the net. One of the really serious issues with these ghost nets is that a lot of marine animals get caught in them and sadly, many die, as appears to be the case here.
More turtle remains below.
Biosecurity can usually tell where these ghost nets have come from by the colour and size of the mesh in the net.
Time for some refreshments. It looks like Clayton is alone however Eslyn is behind the camera.
This time of the year there are a number of long line commercial fishermen working in the waters to the north of Croker Island. Last week we received a call from the NT Water Police to assist with the retrieval of a fisherman who had been bitten on the hand by a tiger shark. The fishing vessel could not come in close due to the shallow water so the rangers had to go out and meet the vessel - in the distance in the photo below.
The long line fishing vessel below. The local clinic manager went out with the rangers to provide medical treatment.
To conduct this operation we had to launch off a rocky beach on the west side of the island. The fisherman was treated at the local clinic and then medivaced to Darwin. He had a very painful hand however thankfully they were not life threatening injuries. Hopefully he regains full use of his hand.
We are now in the dry season. As we start getting around the country after the wet season we are regularly greeted by scenes like the one below. The chainsaws are getting a lot of work lately.
These photos were taken on a recent trip to Point David (southern point of Croker Island).
The purpose of this trip was to install a trail motion sensing camera at an old disused Pearl Farm in a shelter bay where we suspected people may be accessing Aboriginal land without permission.
In a couple of my my more recent posts I have told of a B24 wreckage near Cape Croker. An Australian WW2 historian contacted me asking if he could use some of my photos on his website - see link below.
Until next post, take care.
Bryan and Nancy
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