Tuna Clipper
Location: Santa Catalina Island
Date: January 28, 2023
Wreck: The San Vito aka the Tuna Clipper
Net Handling Team: Jim Babor and Karim Hamza
Documentation Team: Tianyi Liu
Support Team: Symeon Delikaris Manias
Team Ghost Diving USA set out on January 28th aboard the Giant Stride. Their goal was to start removing net off of the wreck of the San Vito aka the Tuna Clipper. The San Vito is an 85 foot vessel used to commercial tuna fishing out of San Pedro Harbor (L.A. Times Archives, 1985). The vessel crashed into some rocks due to poor visibility, capsized and ultimately sank at 12:30 am (L.A. Times Archives, 1985). The 12 crew members survived the incident by waiting for rescue in a small rowboat (L.A. Times Archives, 1985). The Tuna Clipper now rests in approximately 170 feet of water.
The Tuna Clipper wreck has been on the Ghost Diving team’s radar for a while. A few years ago, a documentation dive was completed. Photos and video were taken and showed that the wreck was covered in net. Jim estimates it will take approximately 2 years to clear the wreck of net. The team had a 2.5 hour boat ride to the wreck allowing the team to review the video from the original survey mission. They devised their plan, executed it and were well rewarded. They collected hundreds of pounds of net.
The net was recovered in 3 sections. The net will be sent to our partners for cleaning. One section will be sent to the Beam Center and pieces of the other 2 sections will be sent to artists who have requested it for their projects.
