>> Change of date again!! Moved from 6th May to 20th May to now 27th May <<
We have been approached by the Ghost Fishing NZ team (https://www.ghostfishing.co.nz/) about doing a clean-up of Clyde Quay – sure thing we support this event and hope you all do, too.
20th May outside RPNYC
- 9am Registration for divers and participants starts, followed by safety briefing
- 10am the clean-up begins
- 11.30am last divers exit the water
- til 1pm clean-up activities continue and by
- 2pm all marine life should back in the water or with marine education centre, all rubbish ready for pick up and all involved parties clean and ready to socialise.
Ghost Fishing is when abandoned fishing nets and pots, trap, maim and kill marine animals, hundreds of them daily. The passionate volunteers of the Ghost Fishing NZ branch are part of an international organization who collaborate worldwide with various local groups of technical and salvage divers to remove lost fishing gear.
With the assistance of shore crew (including volunteers from the general public), there will be a select number of divers who will remove the hundreds of beer, wine and rum bottles in Clyde Quay, among other rubbish from our sheds and passers-by that ends up in the water.
Under the guidance of marine biologists from the Island Bay Marine Education Centre, marine life will be gently removed from the rubbish (either put back in the harbour or taken to the Marine Education Centre) while the rubbish itself will be collected by Wellington City Council on the Monday after the event.
The purpose of this event is twofold; first is to make a start clearing the seabed and general marina of anthropogenically-derived pollution in the area and, secondly, we hope to raise awareness to club members and the public of the human impact on the marine environment. There will be water based and shore based photographers and videographers at this event.
Check out the video from the Welli harbour clean-up earlier this year: https://www.facebook.com/GhostfishingNZ/videos/1726086644079048/
This is a public event, so bring your friends and family with you. Everyone participating will need to register, but that’s a quick and easy thing to do on the day.
To bring the rubbish and debris on shore, we need a couple of dingy rowers – surely we will find volunteers among our sailors. If you want to get in the water please note the requirements for all divers:
- All divers must have a minimum of 75 logged dives, with evidence of a
minimum of 10 logged dives using a full face mask. Divers must be of good
physical and medical fitness, all dive gear must have been regularly serviced
and well maintained and all divers must carry with them a dive certification
(i.e. PADI, SSI, GUE). Divers must register before the event and be
members of GFNZ (and have completed the medical questionnaire, diver
medical/gear liability forms).
If this event works well we might turn this into an annual event – that would be such a great achievement so we need all hands on deck to make this work!
Check out the Ghost Fishing NZ Facebook page for more inspiration.