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Successsful Ghost Gear and litter recovery on the SS Stanwood Wreck

Apr 18, 2021
1 min read

Sunday 18th April saw another successful ghost gear recovery, this time from the wreck of the SS Stanwood in the Carrick Roads, Falmouth. Normally visibility on this wreck is very poor but the combination of cold temperatures and lack of rainfall has led to exceptional visibility around the Cornish coast and conditions on the Standood that divers rarely see.

Sadly what they did see was a lot of lost fishing gear (pots and net) along with general rubbish and even an old pair of overalls! We took advantage of the conditions before the weather changed and the visibility was lost to recover what we could. In order to get the maximum number of divers on the wreck we chartered the 10 metre hardboat 'Moonshadow' from Atlantic Scuba in Falmouth for two dives on this site.

6 divers went down and soon lift bags started popping up all over the place! Among our finds were two shellfish pots, several large pieces of net, angling gear, bottles and cans and a random pair of overalls! (beautifully modelled by Rhys here). Enough to fill two dumpy bags. Many thanks to Atlantic Scuba for looking after us, Sea Shepherd UK and Dive Newquay volunteers joining us, and Driftwood Spars Brewery for supporting our work. And a huge thank you to everyone who has donated to us recently, which enables us to organise clean ups such as this!



16 Comments


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That rare visibility on the SS Stanwood wreck sounds incredible, and six divers filling two dumpy bags with ghost gear is such a satisfying result. It's like watching flip a coin online for who finds the weirdest item. Big respect to the volunteers!

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Ak Qo
Aug 13

That visibility on the SS Stanwood is usually poor but opened up enough for a clean-up really drives home how rare these opportunities are. The image of six lift bags popping up all at once from a wreck that normally hides everything is exactly the kind of payoff divers hope for. — ironnestguides.com/multiplayer/

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xin wang
Aug 13

Really enjoyed reading "Large amount of ghost fishing gear and litter recovered from SS Stanwood wreck", and the structure made the key ideas easy to follow. A detail that stayed with me: Successsful Ghost Gear and litter recovery on the SS Stanwood Wreck Julian. Looking forward to reading more like this. take home pay calculator

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Fathoms Free is a group of volunteer divers who protect marine wildlife and the environment for everyone's benefit by removing ALDFG (abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear) and other marine debris from the coastal waters of Cornwall and Devon.

ALDFG is also known as ghost gear or ghost fishing gear, as it continues to "fish," entangling, trapping, and killing wildlife indiscriminately. These trapped animals will die and act as bait, attracting more wildlife in a vicious cycle of death until the ghost gear is removed from the environment.

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Fathoms free are a registered charity.

UK charity number 1192613

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