?On July 12, local scuba divers boarded the Humbolt, a 45-foot scuba-diving vessel donated by Waterhouse Charters in Mission Bay, and began a project to clean up hundreds of pounds of abandoned netting off the coast of the Coronado Islands. The underwater cleanup effort was organized by Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA), the only nonprofit marine conservation organization dedicated to the technical, yet dangerous, task of cleaning up “ghost gear”—abandoned lobster and crab pots, nets and lines. “If there is any commercial fishing that goes on, they typically lose 10 to 15 percent of their nets,” said ODA Founder and President Kurt Lieber. “Ghost netting is very difficult to see and people can get caught and drown in it, and because it’s hard to see, animals get stuck in it too.” Currently, the Coast Guard picks up ghost gear down to 50 feet underwater, due to its danger to recreational boats. Deeper below the surface, however, ghost gear—including now-illegal drift netting from the 1990s—remains entangled among reefs. The tangled nets can trap marine mammals, birds, and other sea creatures, potentially disrupting the ocean ecology. According to Lieber, fishing boats do not typically have scuba divers onboard, so when nets or gear get caught on something underwater, they are simply cut, abandoned and paid for by insurance companies. “It’s a dumping ground in the ocean, and there’s no legal ramifications for it,” he said. “I’m working with some lawyers to get a bill passed to make insurance companies liable for that.” The ease of cutting nets, meanwhile, is not equal to the ease of retrieving the manmade litter. “It’s a long and tedious process,” he said, recalling one project involving a 1,400-pound net in only 80 feet of water that took months to complete due to harsh conditions. Since ODA’s establishment in 2002, Lieber and his team have cleaned up more than 12,000 pounds of abandoned netting in Southern California. “The only way we find these nets is if people report them to us,” he said. Although ODA is based out of Huntington Beach, Lieber urges San Diego divers who see any type of ghost gear to report it to ODA immediately. “There’s no one doing what we do,” he said. “We’re willing to come down here.” To report sightings of ghost gear or to donate to ODA, visit www.oceandefenders.org, email [email protected] or call Lieber at (714) 875-5881.
