On Wednesday August 8th we had planned a ghost net removal trip with diving team Ghost Fishing and partner Bracenet accompanied by public radio and television broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) from Germany. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for that particular day was not good so we moved the trip to August 7th which appeared to be a very good decision! For this mission we headed out from IJmuiden harbor with two boats, Araid Wreckdiving and Mac. O (Northsea divers).
The North Sea was unusual friendly and looked like a flat mountain lake on a summer day. The diving team’s target was a shipwreck nicknamed “Telegraaf”, 8 miles out of Ijmuiden resting at 18m of depth. The underwater visibility was really good this day and the diving team of 5 divers managed to make a longer dive to remove a huge trawler net they spotted at the deck of the shipwreck. Removing the fishing net from the shipwreck was the first step and relatively easy for the team, but the fishing net was SO huge that we soon realized getting it on board of the boat would be the real challenge this time. After showing some muscle power the net came on board of the two boats. We estimated the total weight at about 300KG, a real record catch in one dive with a small team like this thanks to the great weather conditions and the excellent teamwork!
This very successful day was documented by professional photographer Cor Kuyvenhoven (see the photos below) and NDR who will broadcast soon at German public television. Stay tuned!
