The German company that produces the ENOS Beacon diver rescue system has donated all 3,000 euros in prize money won by its product in a recent competition to ghost-net removal team Baltic Sea Heritage Rescue Project (BSHRP).
Seareq International had already announced that it planned to hand over the cash in the event of winning when it entered its product in the awards, because it admired the ghost-diving team. The boot show in Dusseldorf presents a range of awards with cash prizes each year.
BSHRP is a group of volunteer divers who pay for their own activities and otherwise rely on donations. “Their work is spectacular and dangerous, but is hardly noticed because it takes place at great depths,” says technical diver Dirk Göldner, the CEO of Seareq.
“The divers cut the heavy, high-tension nets from the wreck, which are then sent to the surface using lift-bags. Here they are hoisted onto a boat so that they can no longer cause any damage.”
However, before the raised nets can be loaded onto the boats they often have to be left drifting for a time and, because of their weight, tend to float below the surface, where they can be obscured from view by any swell.
So over the past five years BSHRP has taken to attaching ENOS Beacons to the bags, enabling boat-crews to pinpoint the net once they’re ready using GPS.
“There is an as-yet unidentified wreck off Rügen [an island off the German coast] at a depth of 45m on which many nets are hanging and they have been causing great damage there for a long time,” says BSHRP’s managing director Sabine Kerkau.
“This is our next project, for which we can make very good use of the money and will use it for a specific purpose.” The net removal is scheduled to start at the end of April.
Founded in 2003, Seareq specialises in safety and rescue equipment for the scuba diving industry and developed ENOS as the world’s first GPS-supported Electronic Rescue & Locating System. It is designed to function independently of Coast Guards and Marine Co-ordination Centres and enable speedy rescue operations even in remote areas.
Also read: 300kg of ghost fishing nets removed from wrecks in German North Sea, Aim Zero removes 500kg of nets from Baltic Sea shipwreck SS Hispania
