2023 Ghost Net Cleanups Kicked off in the USA
Ghost Diving USA has been busy since the beginning of the year, removing ghost gear from the area surrounding their home base in Los Angeles, California.
On January 28th, they set out aboard the Giant Stride. Their goal was to start removing a net off of the wreck of the San Vito, aka the Tuna Clipper. The San Vito is an 85-foot vessel used for commercial tuna fishing out of San Pedro Harbor (L.A. Times Archives, 1985). The vessel crashed into some rocks due to poor visibility, capsized and ultimately sank at 12:30 am (L.A. Times Archives, 1985). The 12 crew members survived the incident by waiting for rescue in a small rowboat (L.A. Times Archives, 1985). The Tuna Clipper now rests in approximately 170 feet (51 meters) of water.
The Tuna Clipper wreck has been on the Ghost Diving team’s radar for a while. A few years ago, a documentation dive was completed. Photos and videos were taken and showed that the wreck was covered in nets.
The team had a 2.5 hour boat ride to the wreck that allowed them to review the video from the original survey mission and to devise their plan. Their work was well rewarded, as they collected 150 of pounds (70 kgs) of trawler net, in 3 sections. The sections will be sent to Aquafil for cleaning. One of the sections of these nets will be cleaned and sent to the Beam Center to contribute to the building of playground equipment on the USA’s East coast.
Special thanks to:
Net Handling Team: Jim Babor and Karim Hamza
Documentation Team: Tianyi Liu
Support Team: Symeon Delikaris Manias
