Ghost Nets: Art Meets Ecological Restoration

Ghost Nets is the name of the project created by Aviva Rahmani's 10-year transformation of a town dump into a series of ecologically thriving wetland habitats. The Ghost Nets project takes its name from monofilament gill nets used by fishermen. When lost overboard, these invisible indestructible nets drift through the ocean, trapping and killing fish indiscriminately. In January 1991, Rahmani, an artist-cum-ecological rehabilitator, began work to restore 2.5 acres of coastal land located on Vinalhaven Island in the Gulf of Maine. Her journal documents her salt marsh renovation efforts and is excerpted here.