Arrow Point

Location: Catalina Island, California

Site: Arrow Point

Dive Team 1: Jim Babor, Karim Hamza

Dive Team 2: Shane McWilliams, Daniel Pio

Dive Team 3: Jung-han Hsieh, Rene Tetter

Surface Support: Angie Biggs

Mission Impact: 6 hoop pots recovered and line recovered (approximately 200 pounds of abandoned gear recovered).

Team Ghost Diving USA headed back out to Arrow Point to collect the abandoned lobster pots. Originally scheduled for April 27th, our team had to postpone due to weather. Thankfully, the team persevered and with the support of Captain Jim of the Giant Stride, another date was found, and the team forged ahead. The 6 divers were divided into 3 teams of 2 and focused on working in different areas of the lobster pot debris field. 

Team 1, Jim and Karim, needed to return to the boat briefly because of a broken drysuit seal. After fixing the drysuit seal, Jim and Karim got back into the water and followed the reef down to the deepest pot in 240 feet of water. The rest of the dive was spent between 230 and 240 feet. Team 1, in total, spent 1 hour at depth and completed 2 hours of decompression, and deployed 8 lift bags.

The shallow teams worked between 70 feet and 170 feet. Teams 2 & 3 worked at opposite ends of the area. Team 2 worked from west to east and Team 3 worked from east to west. Team 2 was able to launch 1 lift bag. The teams completed their time at depth and as they ascended to complete their decompression obligations, they found that there were more pots in approximately 70 feet of water. Both teams reported that the pots had moved since our initial survey. 

Upon reaching the surface, Angie and Galvin diligently worked to spot lift bags and bring divers and lobster pots back onto the boat. 

In total, our teams launched 11 lift bags. Unfortunately, only 8 were recovered. 3 lift bags were lost. While this can be discouraging, our divers understand that the ocean is powerful and can reclaim recovered debris. Upon returning to the mainland, our divers loaded up the 8 recovered lobster pots and delivered them to Taylor Grifith, an artist in residence at AltaSea in San Pedro. Taylor will take the lobster pots, clean them, and turn them into a sculpture to raise awareness about marine debris and highlight the potential of upcycling and giving new life to debris.