Ghost Gear: Fishing Gear Recovery Project 2024

We really need local business to support us in our quest!

Eastbourne's beautiful coastline has around 340 shipwrecks from WWI and WWII.

Every one of these shipwrecks has some form of abandoned fishing equipment, from nets, line and various types of fishing pots. Some of these wrecks in Eastbourne are home to numerous grey and brown seals, which many of you may have seen in the local waters or even on the 'beach' in the marina.

Eastbourne Sub Aqua Club (Sovereign Divers) BSAC 0513 have project plans, starting from January 2024, to dive for an environmental purpose and do our part for our town and make our local sea a safer and cleaner place.

After in depth training, following all guidelines and protocols of specialists at Ghost Fishing UK our club has initially had four volunteer members, join a 4 day training course based in Plymouth, all at personal expense, to be trained in the potentially dangerous task, of bringing this fishing gear to the surface. It is the club's plan, to increase the number of divers qualified to recover this lost ghost fishing gear and bring more and more of it to the surface.

To try and remove this lost equipment from the marine environment is a challenging and difficult task. Ghost fishing gear is typically entangled in reefs and wrecks, and its removal can be complicated.

Divers will survey the site first and collect data on the ghost fishing gear and any animals trapped, alive and dead. Data is collected and submitted to a ghost fishing gear reporting system using the mandatory activity form, which all projects must complete. This data is critical to provide evidence of the ghost fishing gear problem and adds weight to the mission to reduce it.

The removal technique involves divers attaching bags to the gear, which the diver fills with air, making them float. The divers then cut the gear free as close to the seabed as possible. Great care is needed to ensure that the diver does not become entangled with the equipment. This involves a high degree of teamwork, coordination and discipline.

So to enable Eastbourne Sub Aqua Club (Sovereign Divers) BSAC 0513 to fund this massive project and try and make Eastbourne's seas a cleaner and more environmentally safe place, we need to raise funds to buy various items of specialist lifting equipment to enable lost gear recovery and help teach and train up our interested members in this important environmental project. Fundraising is essential for us to be able to buy the project equipment in the first instance and then to maintain the equipment, to ensure the project can continue long into the future.

In these times of high living costs we decided to focus primarily on reaching out to local businesses and organisations who appreciate this is an important project for our town. As a club we plan to advertise this project as much as possible and will mention and thank the sponsors if they name themselves in the sponsoring, however large or small the sponsorship is. We will even put stickers on our club boat, if your company has one and wants to!

Thank you for reading, donating and helping us to look after our local marine environment.