Photo by: Alexandros Malagaris
Greek divers have been really busy cleaning their waters recently. LDIM will forward their encounter with a so called ghost net. Big thanks to Alexandros Malagris for forwarding the story!
It is not uncommon to find ghost nets during our dives. Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been left or lost in the sea by fishermen. These nets, often nearly invisible in the dim light, can be left tangled on a rocky reef or drifting in the open sea. They can entangle fish, dolphins, sea turtles, seals, sharks, seabirds, crabs, and other creatures, including the occasional human diver. Acting as designed, the nets restrict movement, causing starvation, laceration and infection, and suffocation in those that need to return to the surface to breathe. On Saturday the 27/04/13 during a dive in Kokkari, in the Greek island of Samos, we encountered a ghost net of more than 20 meters length.
Photo by: Alexandros Malagaris
We carefully brought the net in shallow waters and removed it from the sea. On the beach we realized that on the net many small fish were entangled. In few minutes we freed more than 20 fish including five scorpion fish. We then removed the led weights which we will melt and shape them as diving weights. The net’s 40 meters rope will be reused as a diving buoy rope. The net was given back to a fishing store for recycling so it does not become a lethal trap for an animal or a bird in a land fill.
Photo by: Alexandros Malagaris
Photo by: Alexandros Malagaris
