ghost (net) hunters

August 13, 2019 4:57 PM

If others see me cleaning the ocean, they would probably think: ‘An old guy can do it, why can’t we?' With 30 years of diving experience under his belt, Mr Chan intends to raise public awareness of the impact of ghost nets, and inspire more people to join his cause. Since retiring... he has been hunting ghost nets for the past five years, and has conducted some 150 clean-up dives, collecting about 80 tonnes of the material from local waters.

"Over the past 10 years, few scientific studies have assessed the state of ghost gear in Hong Kong waters. We want to enlist the public to help provide more data that will contribute to the development of Hong Kong’s fisheries and waste management." Ghost Gear Reporter

posted by spamandkimchi (3 comments total)

Reminds me of plogging and people fishing for litter. Good for them for doing something.
posted by sacchan at 7:02 AM on August 14, 2019

We just did a similar extraction while I was on a diving trip in the Philippines. One thing folks do in the area I was in is extract the nets whole if possible, measure them, and then turn them over to the authorities. It's a way of drawing attention to the scale of the problem, to try to spur local officials to create policies that will prevent this kind of trash being left on the reef in the first place.
posted by cnidaria at 9:19 AM on August 14, 2019 [1 favorite]

"spur local officials to create policies that will prevent this kind of trash being left on the reef in the first place."

This.

People love stories about brave ocean clean-up efforts, but eyes tend to glaze over (at best) when it comes to preventative regulation and enforcement.
posted by jetsetsc at 9:34 AM on August 14, 2019 [1 favorite]