Successsful Ghost Gear and litter recovery on the SS Stanwood Wreck
- Julian Collison
- Apr 17, 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!
It’s wild that they found a pair of overalls down there alongside all that ghost gear. Seeing those lift bags popping up must have been satisfying, especially with rare "aquarium-like" visibility on a wreck that’s usually a murky mess. Huge props to the dive team for taking advantage of that weather window to clear out two whole dumpy bags of junk. This video extractor is so great.
This is truly inspiring work by Fathoms Free! The dedication of these volunteer divers to remove ALDFG from sites like the SS Stanwood wreck is absolutely vital. It's heartbreaking to think of the "vicious cycle of death" that ghost fishing gear perpetuates, and actions like these are crucial for protecting marine wildlife. It makes me wonder if there are creative ways to raise awareness about this issue through AI-generated videos. Perhaps a tool like the Video Prompt Generator could help craft impactful prompts for such campaigns. Keep up the incredible work, Fathoms Free!
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