An abandoned fishing net weighing about two tonnes has been removed from the ocean floor just off the coast of Nhulunbuy, in the Northern Territory.

The Department of Fisheries and local Dhimurru rangers spent an entire day near Bremer Island dragging the ghost net from the seabed.

Vanessa Drysdale, from the Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation, says the ghost net was an obvious threat to local marine life.

"Once we got it on board, we realised there was a shark entangled in it, and that shark had only perished a couple of days beforehand, so it's an indication of how devastating these nets can be," she said.

"They continue to fish even when they're not being used, that's why they're called ghost nets. They just float around the ocean fishing indiscriminately, so it's really important for us and for the environment to get them out of the system and get rid of them."

Recent funding cuts to the GhostNets Australia organisation means the removal of this net was largely funded by the Fisheries division of the NT Government.

The massive net, which is about 500 metres in length, has been dumped in Gove's local tip.