Ghost Fishing Nets: San Diego divers retrieve abandoned nets off old shipwreck

In July of 2011, I wrote about ocean debris - in particular, abandoned fishing nets and lobster traps - which can continued to ensnare and destroy sealife long after they have been given up as lost. Once hooked on a reef or submerged wreck, fishing nets continue "ghost fishing" and can damage reefs as they get swung about in the ocean currents or swells. Off Point Loma, near San Diego, California's Mission Bay, lies the wreck, High Seas and recently, local divers succeeded in removing approximately 200 pounds of derelict fishing nets that had become snagged on the remains of the ship.

The removal operation was overseen by Ocean Defenders Alliance, a Huntington Beach-based non-profit that solicits the help of volunteer divers to remove derelict nets. When fishing boats release their nets, which can be hundreds, if not thousands, of feet in length, the sharp edges and contours of reefs and particularly shipwrecks can easily tear away large sections of the nets. Initially the nets smother resident sealife and can continue to catch fish that get wrapped up in the nets. Then, as the net begins to settle over time, smaller portions begin to batter the reef as swells or the back and forth motion of ocean currents, called surge, begin to take its toll.

Over a greater length of time, the nets can actually become part of the reef itself, with encrusting algae, anemones, and other plants and invertebrates using the net as a strata or foundation for new growth. At this point, removal of the nets may produce more damage than intended. So, in some locations, the derelict nets are monitored for deterioration that might reverse their sedentary condition and once again damage sealife with portions of loose nets subject to moving ocean conditions.

The High Seas is a 128-foot Navy vessel built near the end of WWII and later sold and converted to a fishing boat. It sank in 1970 and has collected a considerable amount of "ghost fishing" nets over the ensuing years. The Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) and its team of volunteer divers first surveyed the wreck to determine how much net could be removed without doing unintended damage and then proceeded to lift portions of the nets with floats, which enabled them to cut away a large section more easily and safely. Since ODA works with volunteers, diver safety is a crucial issue regardless of the diver's experience level. A free-floating net is a hazard to fish and humans as well.

Here is a video taken in 2010 by a local San Diego diver, Jim Ridgway, of dives on San Diego's USS Logan and High Seas. The first part of the video focuses on the USS Logan and you can see the range of sealife, from fish to colorful anemones, that can call a shipwreck home. Then the video turns to the High Seas and you can clearly see the accumulated nets and the diver even came upon a small leopard shark caught in the netting.



Fisherman view the loss of nets as a frustrating and expensive occupational hazard. However, long after the commercial and economic loss, ghost nets can continue to exert a deadly toll on unintended sealife.

Click here to learn more about the Ocean Defenders Alliance.
Source: San Diego Reader

Ghost Fishing: derelict fishing gear continues to ensnare sealife

When you think of ocean trash, what comes to mind? Plastic bags? Soda can rings? Plastic water bottles? Divers sometimes see more unusual things: lawn chairs, shopping carts; I was diving off Southern California's Catalina Island and came upon a complete porcelain toilet sitting upright in the sand. There's plenty of debris in the ocean, whether floating or sedentary, and there are many organizations dedicated to rounding up as much of it as possible.

But there's another type of debris that can be even more sinister in its impact on the seas: fishing gear in the form of derelict nets and traps. These are items originally designed to catch animals and, when lost or abandoned, continue to ensnare and destroy sealife.

In the latest issue of Sport Diver magazine, Project AWARE reported that in northeastern United States' Chesapeake Bay, a recent removal project recovered more than 60,000 derelict crab traps. These traps would eventually corrode, but that can take well over a decade. In the meantime, they continue to trap crabs - "ghost fishing" as it is called. The Chesapeake Bay project also reported that as many as 150,000 traps are lost annually, with as many as a quarter of a million traps lost in the Gulf of Mexico.

On the west coast, fishing nets snagged on wrecks and reefs pose both a problem with ghost fishing and with damaging the reefs themselves. The nets can smother reef growth or, in some cases, animals like anemones, sponges, and mussels can begin to grow on the nets but, as the nets slowly break down, this artificial strata collapses and more sealife is lost.

Ocean Defenders Alliance, a non-profit based in Huntington Beach, CA, is working to address the issue. It solicits help from local divers and identifies wrecks or reef areas blighted by lost nets. Using volunteers to remove derelict nets, much of their efforts are limited to depths and diving conditions that are safe for recreational divers, but this has not stopped them from pulling up thousands of pounds of netting.

According to Project AWARE, fishermen themselves are now getting involved in the training, locating, and removal of abandoned fishing gear. The motivation? In some areas, they are unable to effectively lower their traps because of the level of debris. Now, for anyone strongly opposed to commercial fishing and thinks that whatever problems the fishermen may have in deploying gear could be a good thing, keep in mind that until clean, efficient aquaculture becomes the dominant commercial activity, these fishermen will continue to struggle with getting their traps out and, in the meantime, abandoned gear is wrecking havoc.

Project AWARE has established a Dive Against Debris program designed to develop, with the help of trained recreational divers, a database of information to assist government agencies and decision-makers in fully comprehending the scope of the problem and how it might be managed in the future. Interested divers can visit Project AWARE's website to learn how to get involved.

Visit the Project AWARE website.
Visit the Ocean Defenders Alliance website.