Cleaning the seabed: Divers halt the carnage of 'ghost' nets

[Judi Lynn]

Elena Becatoros, Associated Press
Updated 10:12 am, Friday, June 8, 2018



POROS, Greece (AP) — There are ghosts in the ocean. Silent killers carried by the currents, wrapping themselves around reefs and claiming the lives of millions of marine creatures great and small, from sponges and tiny crustaceans to dolphins, sharks and whales.

In their former lives, these ghosts were nets and other fishing gear essential to the livelihoods of millions around the world, and put food on the plates of millions more. But once lost, abandoned or discarded into the sea, these nets continue doing what they were designed to do: catch fish.

Mostly made of strong plastic such as nylon, this lost gear known as ghost nets doesn't easily decompose.

"They can remain there for hundreds of years and continue fishing," said Maria Salomidi, environmental researcher at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research. The trapped fish quickly become bait, attracting larger predators who in turn become entangled themselves.

More:
https://www.chron.com/news/science/article/Cleaning-the-seabed-Divers-halt-the-carnage-of-12977838.php

[Delphinus]

1. Grateful to read this.

This is a never-ending job, I am sure.

[PearliePoo2]

2. Here in Puget Sound WA. the Northwest Straits Foundation started a net removal program in 2002

Hats off to these people!

As of August 2016, 5900 derelict nets have been removed!

http://nwstraitsfoundation.org/project/derelict-fishing-gear-removal/

Here's a video showing some of the great work they do:

[SonofDonald]

4. Thanks for that

I live in the Kitsap area and we see very little of that over here but then we are near the Bremerton shipyard and they don't like recreational divers near that.

We do have a beautiful Salish Sea don't we?.

I love the sound, my home since 1966.

[PearliePoo2]

6. Yes, the Salish Sea is indeed beautiful! I'm so glad that this program exists!

I've lived on San Juan Island since 1971. There's prime fishing grounds off the West Side for gill netters and seiners.
Lots of salmon make their way back to the Fraser, Skagit and Nooksack Rivers.

Not so much fishing now but in the 70's and 80's it was packed with boats all "corking" each other! It was crazy!
They mapped this area out with the location of the derelict nets and have removed them!

Nice to meet you!

[Vogon_Glory]

3. Three Cheers For The Divers Doing This!

I vigorously applaud the divers who are taking these things out of the oceans. Ghost nets are a menace to sea life.

[SonofDonald]

5. I've seen a few foreign vessels out there in the Pacific

With miles long nets out, I always wondered what happened when they tore up, ghost fishing forever.

There are thousands of crab pots still fishing in the Bering Sea, a boat runs over a bag setup and the pot can't be recovered so it keeps on fishing.

The line will swing around with the currents and wrap itself onto another pot dropped nearby, you're hauling gear and you get two pots, it's called a "Mother$&@ker" as its a bitch to haul up both without being in real danger.

Then there's the pots drug by ice near the Pribilofs, the ice breaks up and drops them in water too deep to recover not to mention having zero idea where they are, fishing forever.

Then the hundreds of torn off nets from deep sea trawling in the Bering.

Thousands of them out there.