Ghost gear day in Gozo
A dive centre closes to customers for one day a month and sends its instructors down for lost nets instead. We joined the second dive.
Dive for ConservationGozo, Malta
Lost fishing nets keep fishing. Snagged on a reef, they trap fish, octopus and crabs for years, and they smother the seagrass and sponges they settle on.
The Gozo Dive Collective now spends one day a month recovering them. The restoration group marks the sites in advance; the instructors work in teams of three, cutting the net free in sections and sending it up on lift bags.
Slow work by design
Pulling a net too fast tears the reef it is caught on. Most of each dive is spent freeing it strand by strand, and some sites take several visits.
The first net we lifted had a live octopus in it. That was the end of any debate about whether to keep going.
Results
Get involved
Recovery dives are for qualified, experienced divers. Shore volunteers sort and log the gear.