Healthy Seas partner – LAUE (Los Angeles Underwater Explorers) – carried out two successful diving sessions last week.
The LAUE team is dedicated to the exploration and conservation of our planet’s underwater regions, and most of its activities take place in Southern California.
The first cleanup team went down the Caissons in front of Long Beach – San Pedro, to free from ghost fishing nets a large ferro-cement structure that seats in 150ft. What is interesting about this area is that most wrecks off Southern California are usually broken up .It is unusual to find a structure that rises vertically nearly 40′ off the bottom. It is also an unusual, yet fascinating experience, to descend into a large pipe, some 35′ in diameter.
Unfortunately, the Caissons turn out to be the perfect spot to find plenty of old nets, as well as some recent ones. Many marine animals remain entangled and get killed due to this problem. In the video, you can clearly see a sealion that is freed by LAUE. They report the discovery of many sealion bones in this area.
The second dive was on the wreck “african Queen”, in 90ft. The wreck is near the harbor channel, and close to fishing area, and it does attract a lot of nets too.
As part of the Healthy Seas initiative, all the recovered nets will be sent to the ECONYL® plant in Slovenia, where they will be transformed into new nylon yarn for the production of new products.
LAUE will be doing other cleanups for three weekends in a row now, and we wish them another successful result!
More information about The Cassion: cawreckdivers.org/Wrecks/Caissons.htm
Diving and Cleaning the Caissons and the “African Queen” from Cyrille R on Vimeo.
