Every now and then we stumble upon a net choking our beautiful reefs here in the TAR Park offshore from Kota Kinabalu in Sabah.

Thankfully it hasn't happened for a while, but recently we've located a pair that needed removing.

Tackling Net #1 yesterday, our resident PADI Course Director Richard Swann organized a net removal session.  

Richard combined it with a training session for our professional diving interns to enable them to plan and execute net removals on their own in future.

Richard lead the team consisting of Downbelow staffers Jess, Bob and Wellson, along with IDC Interns Shevy & Paul, with our Base Leader James filming the action.

Having been well prepared, the Net Hit Squad headed down below and untangled it in one 65-minute dive.

Although the net had an end loose up in the water, which usually is a very effective marine life killer, there were no casualties and a friendly stonefish was freed along the way too.

Our Assistant Base Leaders Bob & Wellson will shortly be organising the action for the other net, on which we will duly report.