January 14, 2009
Divers Spooked by Ghost Net
BY: Emily Fisher
I don’t think I’ve written about ghost nets before, but the LA Times published a great story on Monday about a particularly deadly one off the coast of Santa Catalina, California.About two years ago, the trawler Infidel sank, taking a 9,000-pound fishing net down with it. The net has since been entangling and killing sea lions, dolphins, sharks and fish ever since.Recently a team of volunteer divers organized by Ocean Defenders Alliance set about to stop the unintended killing by slicing and hauling the netting to the surface.One of the divers was taken aback: “I looked around and discovered that I was in a kill zone. There were tons of bones and a bunch of sea lion skulls by the propeller and a whole shark caught in the fabric. My fellow divers were close by and had their eyes on me as I backed out into the clear.”This is the second story I’ve posted this week about scuba divers taking direct action to help the oceans. I’m not a scuba diver myself, but it’s inspiring to see passionate divers protecting what they love. Hat tip to Sea Notes blog for alerting me to the story.