This weekend the Healthy Seas diving team was on a mission again. This time, the diving activity was planned in one of the most dived wrecks in the UK, out from the coast of Cornwall. Aquafil joined the Healthy Seas’ team along with our customer and Healthy Seas partner, Milliken. The wreck was the James Eagan Layne, about one hour from Plymouth harbor.

Before the intervention of the Healthy Seas diving team, in collaboration with Ghostfishing UK, the wreck had a big wall of monofilament fishing net that was stuck to the wreck and in a very dangerous position fir both any marine animal swimming nearby and for any diver trying to get near the wreck.

With two dives, at about 24 meters (79 feet), the two teams, (a total of six divers), were able to disentangle the monofilament net and clean other ghost nets around the wreck.

The monofilament net is particularly dangerous, as under the water it is practically invisible, making it easy to become stuck and difficult to disentangle yourself once you are trapped. However, monofilament net is usually a great source of nylon 6 material to be regenerated together with other waste into our ECONYL® Regeneration System.

For this diving activity, we were fortunate to have great weather and were able to make a catch of six full bags of ghost nets totaling 100Kg. These nets will soon arrive at our Ajdovscina warehouse where the waste material from all over the world is prepared for regeneration into ECONYL® nylon yarn that is also used by Milliken for many carpet flooring collections.

Stay tuned for video and pictures of the diving activity by the Heathy Seas team and contact the initiative if you want to support the diving activities to recover marine litter, mostly in the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, and Italy.

 

Press release