In communities all around the world, divers are taking a defensive stance to protect the dive sites they love from the tragedy that can happen when a ghost net strikes. Here, we'll learn a bit more about ghost nets, and we'll take a look at some programs divers have created to help keep those nets from harming marine life.
Ghost Nets: What They are, And Why They are a Problem
Maybe you've seen them - pieces of net in unlikely places, sometimes with chunks of debris and the remains of fish or other marine life trapped inside. Some ghost nets are small and lightweight, while others have managed to come together to create massive clusters that eventually snag and sometimes settle on reefs and wrecks. You know you've got to watch out for them, because they're just as dangerous to you as they are to the animals they kill - even though you might be able to cut yourself free with the help of a knife, the experience of becoming entangled in one of these nets is one that will certainly haunt your dreams for more than a few nights.
Ghost nets are either abandoned by fishermen or lost during storms, and though gillnetting is forbidden in many places, old nets made from plastics can survive in the water for decades, leaving a path of destruction in their wake.
What Divers are Doing about the Problem
Today, groups of divers are getting together to keep nets from threatening them or the places they love to dive. One such group has been organized by the Ocean Defenders Alliance, which in just a few short years, has removed well over six tons of abandoned nets from Southern California's waters. Sometimes the things they find are heartbreaking; once, while working south of Catalina, divers found a net that contained six dead sea lions. Since it only takes between two and five days for a sea lion carcass to break down underwater, no one could really say how many of the animals had met a gruesome end in the net. Once the dead animals had been cleared away and the net had been removed, it was weighed - at 1,400 pounds, it was the largest single net Ocean Defenders had brought in.
Often, the divers find live animals trapped in the nets - usually, these are small creatures, like sculpins, starfish, and crabs. These animals are quickly freed from the nets, and then the work begins in earnest. Working in teams, and carefully monitoring one another to ensure no one becomes entangled in a net, the divers cut the nets into sections and stuff them into bags which are then filled with air and sent to the surface, where team members retrieve them and bring them on board for later disposal.
Are there ghost nets where you dive? If so, what can you do about it? Perhaps there is a group you can join, or perhaps this is an opportunity for you to give back to the ocean by forming a group on your own. By simply removing old nets, and by monitoring our underwater environments carefully, we can all help to make the ocean a safer place for everyone who swims in it - ourselves included.