Globally, 6.4 million tons of fishing gear are lost in the oceans annually. This gear (i.e., ghost nets), whether accidently lost, abandoned, or deliberately discarded, threatens marine wildlife as it drifts with prevailing currents and continues to entangle marine organisms indiscriminately. Northern Australia has some of the highest densities of ghost nets in the world, with up to 3 tons washing ashore per kilometer of shoreline annually. This region supports globally significant populations of internationally threatened marine fauna, including 6 of the 7 extant marine turtles. We examined the threat ghost nets pose to marine turtles and assessed whether nets associated with particular fisheries are linked with turtle entanglement by analyzing the capture rates of turtles and potential source fisheries from nearly 9000 nets found on Australia's northern coast. Nets with relatively larger mesh and smaller twine sizes (e.g., pelagic drift nets) had the highest probability of entanglement for marine turtles. Net size was important; larger nets appeared to attract turtles, which further increased their catch rates. Our results point to issues with trawl and drift-net fisheries, the former due to the large number of nets and fragments found and the latter due to the very high catch rates resulting from the net design. Catch rates for fine-mesh gill nets can reach as high as 4 turtles/100 m of net length. We estimated that the total number of turtles caught by the 8690 ghost nets we sampled was between 4866 and 14,600, assuming nets drift for 1 year. Ghost nets continue to accumulate on Australia's northern shore due to both legal and illegal fishing; over 13,000 nets have been removed since 2005. This is an important and ongoing transboundary threat to biodiversity in the region that requires attention from the countries surrounding the Arafura and Timor Seas.

Context Wildlife can be injured or orphaned through a range of (often anthropogenic) activities, creating need for volunteer rescuers and wildlife carers, of which a substantial number is active in Australia. However, the causes and contributing factors for rescued wildlife are rarely reported, which limits development of response options to these wildlife issues. An understanding of the distribution and number of rescuers and carers in relation to injured and orphaned wildlife allows training and outreach to be targeted around specific seasonal peaks, species and causes of injury. Aims and methods We conducted an analysis of 22723 reports over 7 years to the Bonorong Wildlife Rescue Service in Tasmania, Australia, to determine the frequency of species and types of human–wildlife interaction, the report distances from the central facility, and the report distribution relative to the registered rescuer and carer networks. Key results Mammals accounted for over half of all reports, followed by birds, reptiles and invertebrates. Road trauma was the predominant cause for report, followed by orphans. Disease reports and animal attack were also common. Overall, reporting was highest in late spring and summer, but different seasonality in specific causes and species suggests that targeted response options are needed at different times of year. Areas with higher reporting relative to the number of registered rescuers and carers show where volunteer recruitment can be focussed. Conclusions We used a wildlife reporting dataset to illustrate trends (such as seasonality and species vulnerability) and causes of human–wildlife interaction to inform potential response options. Implications Continued citizen reporting can assist wildlife managers to allocate resources, plan training or recruit additional volunteers, track emerging issues, such as disease and climate-related stressors, and guide the planning of public education and mitigation initiatives, particularly for human-related wildlife issues.

There are currently no published studies examining taxonomic bias on Instagram. To address this knowledge gap, this study examined seven popular science communication accounts for a year and found that the majority of posts featured vertebrates. However, non-insect invertebrates attracted the highest measures of positive audience engagement (likes, views and comments), suggesting a mismatch between the preferences of science-seeking audiences online and the information being offered to them. These results challenge traditional notions of charismatic megafauna and could improve conservation outcomes of traditionally under-represented species like invertebrates.