A team of 10 scuba divers recently removed a 656-foot-long discarded fishing net, called a “ghost net,” from a popular diving and fishing site off the coast of Plymouth, England.
The volunteers, who are part of the ocean conservation nonprofit Ghost Fishing UK, had been taking a break from their normal dives due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But as they heard reports of a massive net strewn across two pinnacles at Hand Deeps reef, they knew they had to get back in the water.
The net was trapped between 65 and 100 feet below sea level. It took two dives to completely free the net from the reef and bring it up to their boat.
Then, once aboard the ship, the divers combed through the net for two hours, removing trapped animals. In total, there were 115 creatures entangled in the net, including crabs, lobsters and pollock. Many were still alive, but if not for the Ghost Fishing team, they’d have perished underwater in the discarded gear.
“We are so pleased to be able to get back out doing such important work, even in times like these,” Christine Grosart, a Ghost Fishing UK trustee and course instructor, tells the Plymouth Herald. “This net is huge, but on reefs, it is sometimes very difficult to pinpoint exactly where the ghost gear is. Fortunately, we had excellent information from several reports and with good coordinates, we were able to find it within eight minutes.”
The net recovery was part of a larger mission during which divers recovered over a dozen discarded large crab traps and other trash in Dorset and Lyme Regis, England. One of the traps had a live conger eel trapped inside, which the team was able to set free.
“Hand Deeps is one of the most biodiverse reefs that we regularly dive and as such is a very popular spot for our customers,” James Balouza of Plymouth’s In Deep Dive Centre tells the Plymouth Herald. “Ghost nets, such as the one recovered this week, pose a threat to a vast array of marine life. [Ghost Fishing UK’s] swift and effective removal significantly decreases the impact to the marine environment and industries that depend on the health of our coast.
Across the globe, an estimated 1.4 billion pounds of fishing gear is discarded into the ocean each year. Although the fishermen are long gone, the gear keeps trapping animals, entangling and eventually killing them. This is why the gear is nicknamed “ghost” gear.
The nonprofit asks local divers and fishermen to alert members to lost or discarded fishing nets and traps. It relies on a network of volunteers who have undergone a Ghost Fishing specialty dive course to pull the gear from the ocean.
Source: Sport Diver
