"Infidel" Wreck, more net removal

[Divebum Don]

Saturday, 28 Feb 09 Ocean Defenders Alliance was able to bring out KCET production staff from the program "So Cal Connected" to observe and document more deep water net removal from the sink wreck "Infidel" off the East end of Catalina for an episode airing soon on PBS.

Local Catalina divers lead by Jason Manix again did ALL the hard work to coordinate and execute these deep (150') work dives. Thanks to Bob Kennedy and staff for offering to captain the "King Neptune" dive boat from Scuba Luv to handle the divers, and Cinde Macgugan and staff from Catalina dive supply for all the divers support!!

Conditions were good, sunny, low 50's @ depth, with from 30 feet to way-less of Vizz as cutting on the nets starts, and debris fills the area. Personal thanks to commercial/tech diver/buddy Greg Cooke for the V-plan safe deco profiles, diving with the ODA, and keeping me safe for this stuff! There is nobody I'd rather be in the water with!

A few more trips will be made out to clear this wreck of the last of it's deadly nets. It will be a good Tech/Wreck when it's clear. Dr. Bill Bushing was on board to do some documenting of species in the nets, nice to "hang" (on deco) with him ;~)

Ocean Defenders Alliance works year round to help clean up the underwater environment that we all love, if you'd like to help out, please contact ODA. Ocean Defenders Alliance

 

[drbill]

Good to see you posting this Don. Don is one of the local divers who did the real work cutting at the net. The credit belongs to these divers, the crew of the King Neptune and ODA. My only contribution was to assess the marine life living on the net and to take some pretty lousy video footage! This is a good example of how those of us who love the ocean can work together to address such problems. Here is what I have posted elsewhere:

Yesterday a crew of local divers from Catalina under the direction of Jason Manix on SCUBA Luv's King Neptune, and Kurt Lieber's Ocean Defenders Alliance on the Clear Water, went out to the wreck of the squid boat Infidel off Catalina's East end to continue to slow process of removing much of the squid net hanging from the superstructure of the vessel. This has been a cooperative effort with SCUBA Luv, Catalina Diver's Supply, Ron Moore's Dive Moore and others working together to rid the ocean of a "ghost" net that was trapping marine life including sea lions.

A film crew from PBS' KCET station went along on Kurt's boat to film the event and interview many of those involved. Kurt and Bob Kennedy invited me along to offer an opinion from the perspective of a marine biologist. It was my first set of dives on this wreck as I've been out of town or sick the past three months.

My two dives yesterday were to the bottom adjacent to the squid boat at 150-151 feet for 32 minutes each. The conditions were murky... apparently the worst conditions the divers have seen in all their two years of diving there. Of course that figures.

On my first dive I filmed the critters in the net on the bottom and made my quick assessment of that part of the net, the rest of the first dive and the second dive I focused on the hanging portion of the net. I did not see anything truly unusual on either part of the net. However, I think it best to leave the net that is already on the bottom alone but bunch it up.

There was not enough life on the hanging portion of the net to leave it, so I recommended they cut that part loose and retrieve it to put in a dump. Unfortunately due to the slow progress involved in cutting the net at such depth, only one portion of the net was removed and floated to the surface for the KCET crew to see and film. Other segments were brought much closer to being removed.

This work is slow due to the limited light at depth, the debris that is cast off as the net is worked on and the tendency for divers to become narced at these depths, especially when physically active. I was told that on previous dives where tri-mix was used that more work was accomplished due to the clear headedness of the tech divers.

Since this was my first deep dive in about 5 months, and my first real dives in three, I felt the effects of narcosis as I filmed at depth. I wasn't focused on my camera and ended up panning with the lens at partial telephoto which rendered the pans far too fast to see much. I've worked at depths up to 200 ft with much smoother results, but I believe that was due to my being conditioned to diving at depth over several months and my previous "resistance" to significant narcosis due to that conditioning over time. No more! Got to start re-conditioning myself!

After the dive the ODA crew headed in to take the KCET crew to the Express boat, then headed off back to the mainland. The local dive team gathered up at the dive team leader's house (Jason Manix and Cynde MacGugan) that evening to have a small party and look at the video.

I was appalled when my video was shown. It has to have been some of the worst footage I have ever shot and will undoubtedly land on the cutting room floor assuming I even bother capturing it to my computer. Fortunately Bert Skura, the other videographer, got some outstanding footage with the incredible system he bought from Mike Luzansky at H2O Photo Pros. I was truly impressed with the results... they almost made it look like we had been diving in the tropics instead of murky So Cal waters. (NOTE: I Did capture, edit and color correct the footage yesterday. I kept half of it as potential;ly usable).

I hope others will support the work of Kurt Lieber and Ocean Defenders Alliance in removing nets and other fishing gear left behind by what I consider to be irresponsible operators... and toothless laws. If nets of this size were left draped over the Grand Canyon, the redwoods or Half Dome there would be public outcry. Because they are abandoned underwater where few can see them... and the damage they cause, they are often left to do their killing perhaps for many years.

Dr. Bill

 

[Teamcasa]

On behalf of all of the marine life saved, I just want to pass along a huge thank you to all who are and have participated in this endeavor.

Thank you.

 

[Divebum Don]

Bill,
Donny Neel is the Island side diver you're referring to, hats off to him!! He also was the one who made the first call to Sea Shepherd about this whole mess. I was the ODA diver with the Black Oceanhaus Video Cam and sony HC-9:

AB Sea Photo

I was shooting for unencumbered ODA footage and usage, and KCET. You'll find these housings to be bullet proof(navy tested to 500'), perfect size for EVERY dive, it captures well even with ambient light @ depth, and has GREAT glass, you wont want to dive (or Surf) without it! I hear these are also in the bag of tricks for Bob Talbot and Tom Campbell, good company. I'll get some video posted soon.

Thanks again for coming out!

Don Robarge
Dive Team Coordinator, ODA

 

[drbill]

Ha... I thought Divebum Don was Donny Neel... sorry about the confusion, Don. This is one reason I use a screen name consistent with my nickname... at least I know who it is when I'm posting. Tee hee.

 

[Randy43068]

Even though I am not from the area, I'd like to chime in with my thanks too.

Fantastic job, my hat off to all of you who helped doing this!!

 

[Blackwood]

Thanks for all your hard work, guys. When you are done with this, I know of another site draped in fishing net (albeit I doubt 8000 pounds of it) that could use some attention. It also sits at about 150', and is a death trap. Last time we were out there was a fairly fresh sea lion death. Very sad.


I'm curious about the methodology. Did you start low and work high? Intuitively, I think that's how I'd go at it to try to avoid sending anything up that may be attached to something below me. Did you have any support divers on hand (other than Dr. Bill who was on video duty) to assist with entanglement, etc.?

Very daunting task, but a great cause. I'd love to lend a hand if possible.

 

[drbill]

Blackwood, the divers worked in teams that were fairly close together so entanglement would been addressed by the other divers in the group.

Based on the biological assessment I made, the only portion of the net to be cut free and removed at this time is the portion hanging from the upper superstructure of the Infidel and draped over the rest of the boat. To accomplish this dive teams had to free the portions of the net attached to the vessel at the lower levels before the upper portions could be cut free. This is based on my observations, but comments from the actual working divers would help clarify this.

The portions of the net on the bottom contained substantial marine life, although nothing unexpected based on my limited observations of it. The upper portions of the net, and the part draped over the wreck seemed relatively devoid of significant critters although millions of bryozoa and other encrusters will be removed with it.

Again, my only involvement was as a marine biologist to assess the marine life on the net and as a videographer (a role I failed miserably at due to narcosis, camera issues and limited bottom time). Here is a collage of stills taken from my video and color corrected to give people an idea of what is involved in this significant effort:

 

[Blackwood]

Thanks, Bill.

It's something I personally think I'd feel more comfortable with if there were non-working divers on hand with emergency stages, etc..

Anyway, hijack over. Thanks again to all involved.

 

[Randy43068]

Doctor Bill, that's some mighty fine photo-graphy work there. Thanks for posting it.