A tiny Torres Strait mob is casting its net wide for your attention
The creators of a colossal Sydney artwork handmade with driftnets fished from the sea want you to know they pose a dire threat to the world’s turtles.
One of 11 gigantic eagle rays made by the Erub Island mob from abandoned fishing nets. The work will be installed next year in Exchange Square at Sydney’s Barangaroo South. Lynnette Griffiths
Who knew that six of the seven turtle species in the world are found close to home, in the Torres Strait between Australia and Indonesia? Or that those six species are heading for extinction, victims of the sprawling driftnets used by Indonesian fishermen, even though these were banned by the country’s government last year and by many other nations?
Lynnette Griffiths knows. The Australian artist is co-founder of the Cairns-based Ghost Net Collective – a group dedicated to “raising awareness about, and making art from abandoned beach rope and fishing gear”.
