GHOST NETSCAPE, Miami, FL.

Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Art in Public Places Program

Ghost Netscape is a public art installation that confronts the ecological crisis of discarded fishing gear—thousands of nets that drift through the world’s oceans, ensnaring marine life and devastating fragile ecosystems. Once instruments of sustenance, these “ghost nets” have become agents of destruction, silently continuing to capture and kill long after being lost or abandoned.

This installation recontextualizes fragments of one thousand recovered nets, each encased within a series of transparent glass cylinders. Suspended in colored gels, the tangled remains become both evidence and elegy—illuminating the invisible violence of industrial fishing while inviting reflection on humanity’s responsibility toward the living ocean.

Each discarded net is not inert: it continues to “ghost fish,” ensnaring creatures indiscriminately. A single abandoned net is estimated to kill, on average, 500,000 marine invertebrates, 1,700 fish, and 4 seabirds over time. Globally, abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear (commonly called “ghost gear”) is believed to make up 10% of marine litter, amounting to 500,000 to 1,000,000 tons entering oceans annually. In the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, fishing nets alone constitute approximately 46% of the mass of debris.

Beyond direct mortality, ghost nets inflict profound habitat damage. In coral reef systems, lost nets can abrade, shade, and break corals, preventing rebound and reducing live coral cover—even after removal of the gear. On seabed and benthic habitats, nets and traps smother living organisms, compact sediments, and impede growth of seagrasses, crustaceans, and benthic invertebrates. The cascading ecological losses reverberate through food webs, reduce biodiversity, and undercut the resilience of marine systems.

Situated within Miami’s multimodal transit station at the gateway to The Underline, Ghost Netscape transforms a site of movement and connection into a space of awareness and renewal. The work challenges viewers to confront the legacies of unsustainable practices and to imagine pathways toward ecological repair. It stands as both a warning and a promise—that we can do better as stewards of our shared planet.

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Credits: Terreform ONE, Mitchell Joachim (Co-Founder), Mark Chambers (Executive Director), Vivian Kuan, David Paraschiv, Emily Young, Nicholas Lynch, Avantika Velho, Claudia D'Auria, Mamoun Friedrich-Grosvenor, Grace Morenko, River Prud’Homme, Brook Boughton.