Horrid monofilament net recovered off of Maenporth near Falmouth

Yesterday evening, the team at Fathoms Free responded to a report from Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings Network of an abandoned monofilament net just offshore from Maenporth Beach, near Falmouth.

In addition to the initial report from CWT, we also received further reports via our reporting system and social media pages from staff at a local dive shop that one of their customers had found a net.

This net was in the same location as one we recovered a few years ago, which had claimed the life of a seal and dolphin, as well as numerous other marine animals. We knew we had to recover this one as soon as possible.

Despite its relatively short length of around 30 to 40 meters, many animals were trapped. By the time we'd found and surveyed the net, then recovered it and the divers onto the boat, it was dark.

We proceeded back to Mylor slowly while the team worked on cutting free and returning the animals to the water, taking care not to harm those still alive. In particular, cutting crabs out of monofilament is demanding work, as they like to hold on tightly!

The team freed an unidentified small fish and several lucky crustaceans, including six brown crabs and 14 spider crabs, one of which was berried! Sadly, several crabs and a bird, believed to be a cormorant, were not so fortunate.

What was also interesting for us was that in the initial report on Sunday by the diver to CWT, eight catsharks or bullhuss were entangled in the net. Our team found the remains of six fish, albeit such a small amount that we couldn't make an ID.

This shows that it's impossible to tell how many lives a net has taken before it's discovered and recovered, as trapped animals will be preyed upon the instant they're caught.

Sadly, this often leads to marine mammals and birds seeing the trapped wildlife as an easy meal, unaware that the deadly wildlife trap is waiting to get them entangled and continue the cycle of death.