During the past AWARE week (15th-23rd September 2018), Exotic team has found and retrieved a huge fishing net stuck underwater at Pawikan Hole--one of our local dive sites in Malapascua with beautiful corals.

It took two rice sacks to fill and we had to weigh them separately because it was too heavy! The total weight is 11.7kg+36.7kg=48.4kg--almost 50kg!!!

Because of the scale and condition of the fishing net, limited bottom time and not-so-ideal diving conditions, we decided to work together as a team to retrieve it and lifted it up using DSMBs rather than cut it into pieces to bring up separately. This way it is more efficient and less likely to get the fishing net fly away with the current then stuck again somewhere else.

Once it's on the surface our experienced boat crew would come over and picked it up. It took us about half an hour to get the whole net untangled from the coral reef and safely up to the surface, despite the difficult conditions.

Good job to our local dive team: this is time and effort well spent to protect our beautiful ocean and dive sites. Yes it is important and meaningful, but it is also fun and challenging! Please join us for more dive against debris here at Exotic, together we can make a change!