Supporting Project AWARE’s Debris Month of Action in September, Downbelow’s island crew and IDC interns went on a mission to remove the latest carelessly discarded illegal fishing net from the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park in Kota Kinabalu.
The illegal net was discovered by our interns last week during a fun dive, and after helping a few horse-shoe crabs escape, they vowed to return to remove the menace once and for all.
Downbelow’s resident PADI Course Director, Richard Swann, took some time out from the current Instructor Development Course to lead the assault on the net with the interns in tow.
The net, wafting up in the water at a depth of 25 – 30m, was stuck in the sand and the best solution was to cut free as much as possible and float it to the surface with lift-bags. At the surface, the net, which would bare considerable weight, would be hauled into the waiting boat.
Our awesome team of interns and staff successfully managed to clear most of the net, thereby saving the reef environment and reef critters from much death and destruction.
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