http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18910302-29277,00.html
DOZENS of dead turtles caught in so-called ghost nets in the Gulf of Carpentaria have been washed up after Cyclone Monica, local councils have said.
Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been accidentally lost, deliberately discarded, or abandoned at sea. The largest net found in the Gulf was a Taiwanese gill net about four km long, with a drop of 12 metres and weighing an estimated five tonnes.
Most of the nets came from Indonesian and Taiwanese vessels fishing illegally in Australian waters, Mr Wright said.
"It really is the international ones that cause an enormous amount of problems.
"It's just laziness. When the nets get snagged, they just cut them loose."