Hi all,
I am new to the community, did not think this would be my first post, but I thought it was too important to share.
About a week ago, a ghost net, almost 1km long got tangled up at the coral reefs in Sipadan. Here is the link to the news story.
I was forwarded this account of a member of the team who was part of the rescue effort to remove the ghost net.
Written by Por
It is truly the saddest day of my diving life.
Our cave mapping project turned out to be a reef rescue mission in one of the most beautiful and diverse coral reefs.
On Friday morning, the director of Sipadan Marine Park informed us that there was a 900m-long ghost net that had drifted into Sipadan Island. We decided to alter our plan to check it out right away.
The net was stuck on the reef at the depth of between 3-10m from Barracuda Point to Hanging Garden (north side). Our team of 5 divers with two rangers started removing the net straight away.
It sounds easy to remove the nets by just pulling it off. But if we did it that way, we would destroy the coral reef massively. Instead, we took the net out one coral colony at a time.
After 7 hours, we ran out of our gases and also my CCR stack time. We left to Mabul to refill and expected the authorities would allow us to continue the work thru out the night. Our team leader Roihan tried to explain to the park authorities and the military of the importance and consequences of leaving the ghost net on the reef.
The schools of bump-head parrotfishes cruise along the shallow reef during the low-tide and sharks will be attracted to the dead fish on the ghost net. Our worst nightmare would be the dead turtles. There are hundreds of turtles roaming in area. They need to swim up to the surface regularly to breath air.
We got special permission to set sail from Semporna at 4am and finally we were back in the water at 5am . Around 7am there were divers from the Sabah Park, Uncle Chang, Seaventures, Borneo Divers, SWV, Scuba Junkie, Kapalai and Smart Resort joining us.
Unfortunately, our nightmare came true. Our scout team who swam along the net found one turtle, around 30 sharks and hundreds of reef fish and crustaceans dead, caught in the net. It was the saddest and most depressing dive of mine.
While we were removing the net from the coral colonies, we were also rescuing the entrapped fish and other marine life with about a 50% successful rate. 90% of parrotfish and shark died. The surviving fish were badly injured. And time was running out. If we were to rush, the coral colonies would have died. On the other hand, if we were to remove it slowly one branch at a time, more fish and turtle will get trapped and die.
I spotted a turtle struggling trying to escape from the net. Luckily, I rush towards the turtle and cut it loose in time. The turtle escaped from the entanglement of the net and rushed to surface for air.
My rebreather CO2 absorption limit is about 4-5 hours, so I came up about 9am and jump back in with single-tank OC sidemount for the last section. Eventually, we have finished clearing the net at about 10am.
The dead turtle was brought up and the marine park officers took the measurement and ID information. He was a male green turtle (C. mydas) about 20 years old. The park director asked us to take him to rest inside the Turtle Tomb Cave, so we did our last dive sending him in.
We put 8kg of weight to make him sink and at the depth of the cave entrance, the volume of his lung reduced and became neutral buoyant. I held him on his back with my two hands and placed him at the end of the cavern (light zone) area. I could feel the hydrodynamics of his shell.
I am still feeling depressed until now. Today, we are continuing our cave mapping project and we will meet him again. Last night, we decided to name him as “Siparan” (the origin of the name Sipadan Island came from the name of a Bajau Laut (Sea Gypsea) man “Siparan” who died on the island.)
I hope this won’t happen again anywhere. And stop consuming excessive amount of seafood, please.
24 SEP 2022
Sipadan Island
I am new to the community, did not think this would be my first post, but I thought it was too important to share.
About a week ago, a ghost net, almost 1km long got tangled up at the coral reefs in Sipadan. Here is the link to the news story.
I was forwarded this account of a member of the team who was part of the rescue effort to remove the ghost net.
Written by Por
It is truly the saddest day of my diving life.
Our cave mapping project turned out to be a reef rescue mission in one of the most beautiful and diverse coral reefs.On Friday morning, the director of Sipadan Marine Park informed us that there was a 900m-long ghost net that had drifted into Sipadan Island. We decided to alter our plan to check it out right away.
The net was stuck on the reef at the depth of between 3-10m from Barracuda Point to Hanging Garden (north side). Our team of 5 divers with two rangers started removing the net straight away.
It sounds easy to remove the nets by just pulling it off. But if we did it that way, we would destroy the coral reef massively. Instead, we took the net out one coral colony at a time.
After 7 hours, we ran out of our gases and also my CCR stack time. We left to Mabul to refill and expected the authorities would allow us to continue the work thru out the night. Our team leader Roihan tried to explain to the park authorities and the military of the importance and consequences of leaving the ghost net on the reef.
The schools of bump-head parrotfishes cruise along the shallow reef during the low-tide and sharks will be attracted to the dead fish on the ghost net. Our worst nightmare would be the dead turtles. There are hundreds of turtles roaming in area. They need to swim up to the surface regularly to breath air.
We got special permission to set sail from Semporna at 4am and finally we were back in the water at 5am . Around 7am there were divers from the Sabah Park, Uncle Chang, Seaventures, Borneo Divers, SWV, Scuba Junkie, Kapalai and Smart Resort joining us.
Unfortunately, our nightmare came true. Our scout team who swam along the net found one turtle, around 30 sharks and hundreds of reef fish and crustaceans dead, caught in the net. It was the saddest and most depressing dive of mine.
While we were removing the net from the coral colonies, we were also rescuing the entrapped fish and other marine life with about a 50% successful rate. 90% of parrotfish and shark died. The surviving fish were badly injured. And time was running out. If we were to rush, the coral colonies would have died. On the other hand, if we were to remove it slowly one branch at a time, more fish and turtle will get trapped and die.
I spotted a turtle struggling trying to escape from the net. Luckily, I rush towards the turtle and cut it loose in time. The turtle escaped from the entanglement of the net and rushed to surface for air.
My rebreather CO2 absorption limit is about 4-5 hours, so I came up about 9am and jump back in with single-tank OC sidemount for the last section. Eventually, we have finished clearing the net at about 10am.
The dead turtle was brought up and the marine park officers took the measurement and ID information. He was a male green turtle (C. mydas) about 20 years old. The park director asked us to take him to rest inside the Turtle Tomb Cave, so we did our last dive sending him in.
We put 8kg of weight to make him sink and at the depth of the cave entrance, the volume of his lung reduced and became neutral buoyant. I held him on his back with my two hands and placed him at the end of the cavern (light zone) area. I could feel the hydrodynamics of his shell.
I am still feeling depressed until now. Today, we are continuing our cave mapping project and we will meet him again. Last night, we decided to name him as “Siparan” (the origin of the name Sipadan Island came from the name of a Bajau Laut (Sea Gypsea) man “Siparan” who died on the island.)
I hope this won’t happen again anywhere. And stop consuming excessive amount of seafood, please.
24 SEP 2022
Sipadan Island
