Yesterday we recovered a huge abandoned net in Mounts Bay. The deadly monofilament net was found by divers during a Cornwall Wildlife Trust Seasearch dive, which was supported by CPWF UK DIVE, a part of Captain Paul Watson Foundation UK to survey the sea grass beds in the area.
The divers and skipper who are all volunteers, spent over an hour underwater then an hour above it, in the chilly January temperatures to safely recover the monster. The monofilament net which was stretched over a large area, had also caught other abandoned clumps of fishing gear! It's not often a single team of divers will overfill a dumpy bag with monofilament nets on a single recovery.
In the last picture, you'll see a small speck of red on each side of the photo - that's the length of the tangled mess. Much of the net was in clumps as you can see from some of the photos as they pulled it into the boat. However, it still stretched over such an area that it was difficult to get it all in a photo without losing sight of the fully inflated bright red bags! Imagine the size of it all untangled - it would be hundreds of metres!
A great start to this year's work with another killer removed from the marine environment. A huge thank you to the dedicated volunteers who gave up their Sunday to make the oceans a better place! It's also another great example of the benefits of Seasearch divers exploring and surveying new areas.
If you want to start on your journey of diving with a purpose, check out Seasearch Cornwall! The data they produce is vital in helping influence decision makers as well as acting as ghost gear searchers at the same time, helping us rid the oceans of lost and abandoned fishing gear!