Volunteer divers and fisherman team up to release trapped marine life off Cornish coast

This group of divers led by Mark Milburn from Atlantic Scuba certainly got more than they bargained for this week! What started as a trip out to release 700 juvenile lobsters, ended up with the dramatic rescue of dozens of crabs, lobsters and other marine life trapped inside a massive 100m+ net that had been abandoned off the Cornish coast.

Mark tells the story here:

A group of volunteer divers, led by myself, went out into Falmouth Bay on Tuesday to release 700 juvenile lobsters for the National Lobster Hatchery. Their chosen location was just off of Rosemullion Headland. Diving in two groups, I dived with the first group and we descended and released around half the lobsters.

As we then headed along the reef to do a little exploring, we soon came across a piece of net, standing 4-5m from the sea bed. It continued a long way and was stretched across the reef. Within a few metres we came across some spider crabs, caught in the net and we quickly started to cut the crabs free.

Once we had released the crabs, placing them some distance away, we continued along the net. The net had dozens of spider crabs, brown crabs and lobsters trapped along it’s length, stretching out for over 100m across the reef. We left a surface marker buoy in place for the second group to locate the net. We realised it was going to be a very dangerous operation to remove the net and wanted to consult with our second group of divers as to the potential of removing the net. Our group headed for the surface and were picked up by our boat. We dropped a buoyed anchor by the surface marker buoy, which was then recovered.

While the second group was kitting up, a local fisherman, Tim Bailey, came across to see if the representative from the National Lobster Hatchery was on board. She hadn’t gone out on the boat but had returned to the hatchery in Padstow. I told Mr Bailey of the net, explaining it’s size and direction as best I could from what we had seen underwater. Mr Bailey kindly offered to help recover the net using his mechanical hauler aboard his boat. It would be a lot safer than divers trying to do it!

The second group entered the water and descended down the buoyed anchor line. Once they reached the sea bed, they released the rest of the baby lobsters and then tied the anchor to the rope of the net. Once they competed the dive, Mr Bailey picked up the buoyed line and attached it to his hauler. Four of the divers went aboard Mr Bailey’s boat to help bring the net aboard. For over thirty minutes they pulled and hauled at the net, slowly dragging it aboard.

Eventually they managed to bring the whole net aboard, with an estimated length at well over 100m. Once back at harbour, more fishermen came to help Mr Bailey with the disposal of the net.

How many creatures it has caught and killed will never be known but we made sure it won’t be able to kill any more. Thanks to everyone that helped with the rescue and release of the net.