The Olympic

Video Credit: Jung-han Hseih

Location: San Pedro

Wreck/Site: The Olympic

Teams:

Team 1: Norbert Lee, Jung-han Hsieh, Rene Tetter

Team 2: Karim Hamza, Katie McWilliams, Shane McWilliams

Mission Impact: 250 feet of chain and an anchor removed, 9 square feet of net removed, water samples collected.

Team Ghost Diving USA journeyed out with the recreational team aboard the Giant Stride! The objectives for the day included collecting water samples for the continued research at UCSB examining the relationship between microbes and the breakdown of ghost nets and training for Katie and Rene.

Dive 1 was focused on the demonstration of collecting water samples. The procedure for collecting water samples is very specific. First, the team must take a series of bottles on the dive. The bottles are open and allowed to acclimate to the environment around them during the descent and the initial part of the bottom phase of the dive. Divers descend with the bottles open to allow the water in the bottles to acclimate to the environment. Both teams observed while Norbert collected samples. After the samples were collected, Karim noticed a chain in the sand. He started to follow the chain and discovered an anchor. The team began to place lift bags for recovery on the second dive.

Both teams had successful second dives after completing their surface interval. The work began once the teams were back on the boat. Team 2 recovered 250 feet of chain plus the anchor. Thankfully, the team was able to pull together to get everything that was recovered pulled up onto the boat. Team Ghost Diving USA enjoyed a successful mission and cleaning up the last bit of debris on the Olympic!