Divers pull together in quest to save sea life
OLD NETTING COLLECTED AT SHIPWRECKS
DIVERS have retrieved more than 40 square metres of lethal netting and disused lobster pots endangering sea life during the exploration of shipwrecks off the coast.
The volunteer team from Ghost Diving UK set off from Royal Quays Marina in North Shields to two locations including the wreck of the SS Mars, an 80-metre Swedish steam-powered boat which sank in 1939 after hitting a German mine, costing seven lives.
At a depth of around 100ft, they retrieved 40 square metres of netting which weighed 125kg – manually lifting it to the support boat.
On a second dive, at the wreck of the nearby SS Hanne, the team recovered 15 disused lobster pots.
Both the disused netting and lobster pots, known as ‘ghost nets’, are deadly to sea life.
Duncan Simpson, a technical diver from Ghost Diving UK, said: “The nets are catching aquatic life which brings in other aquatic life to feed on it and they get snagged in the net and they then die. Until we break the cycle and remove the net, it will just continue.
“We retrieve the net, bring it back to the marina and then it is recycled for another purpose, removing the threat from the sea.
“Without being able to get the boat and the team together and the funding behind it, we wouldn’t be able to get it out.
“It is really important we remove these from the sea. They’d just stay there forever, carrying on catching and carrying on killing.”
Ghost Diving UK co-ordinated the event which was supported by Hyundai UK as part of its new partnership with Healthy Seas.
Healthy Seas is a global organisation which works with teams of volunteer divers from the charity organisation Ghost Diving to recover abandoned fishing nets from coral reefs and shipwrecks so they can be recycled into new materials.
The reclaimed fishing nets and other nylon waste can become ECONYL(R), a regenerated nylon yarn that can, in turn, be used to make new products such as the floor mats on the new Hyundai IONIQ 5 electric car.
Ashley Andrew, MD of Hyundai UK, said: “For us to have this partnership and demonstrate our commitment to environmental, societal and sustainability issues is very important to us and we’re really happy to be working together with Healthy Seas.
“We want to be a brand that has a real purpose and it’s important we’re not just offering products and services but that we’re doing it in a responsible way.
“We’re now working with suppliers to take that waste and turn it into products which we incorporate into our vehicles.”
Veronika Mikos, director of Healthy Seas, added: “We’re excited to partner with Hyundai on a pan-European level.
“It is clear that we share the same passion for protecting the environment with Hyundai’s leadership in developing sustainable mobility solutions and our experience protecting marine ecosystems.”