In the afternoon of 15th February we received a report that a ghost net had washed ashore on Castle Beach, Falmouth. The photographs showed monofilament net and rope below the tidemark at the bottom of the sea defence wall.
Fearing the net could be taken back out to sea with the next high tide, two of Fathoms Free's divers Elle and Rita, answered the call to action and were on site as fast as they could. With time and the incoming tide working against them, they dragged well over 100Kg of net across the sand and up to the top of the ramp ready for collection.
Later that same evening, Life's A Beach Cafe at Maenporth contacted us to say that they had also dragged a substantial piece of net up the beach away from the tidemark earlier that day and wondered if we could retrieve it for them.
The following morning, our diving officer Jules took the truck to Falmouth to recover the nets and some extra litter including a tyre and plastic mouldings.
Both nets recovered were monofilament gill nets, just like the net that tragically killed a seal and dolphin at the beginning of the year. No doubt a week of stormy weather and spring tides had caused them to wash ashore.
If anyone comes across nets or marine debris whilst out exercising or doing their own beach cleans, please try to pull any large items you can't carry as far up and away from the tidemark as possible. This will prevent them being taken back out at the next high tide. If the items are too big to completely remove from the beach yourselves or place into a bin, please contact us so that we can try and organise retrieval as quickly as possible. If we can’t get there ourselves, we’ll make sure we find someone that can.