As part of 'Puneet Sagar Abhiyan' (Clean Ocean Movement) and Environmental Protection Activities, the Indian Coast Guard Station Mandapam in Southern India performed cleaning of eco-sensitive coral reef sites.
The activity was carried out at sites in the Palk Bay area, which is a shallow water region between the southern Coast of India (Tamil Nadu's Ramanathapuram district) and the neighbouring island nation, Sri Lanka.
Teams comprising of three Coast Guard divers and other divers from a private organization carried out nine hours of diving and clean-up activities, which led to recovery of multiple ghost nets. Ghost nets are basically abandoned or discarded fishing nets that are drifting in the ocean or are left entangled in rocky areas.
In the low visibility at the seabed, these nets often trap marine life including fish, dolphins, sharks, turtles, dugongs, crabs and even divers. A video shared by the Indian Coast Guard showcases the low visibility at the seabed and how small forms of marine life are getting trapped in these nets. Divers are seen disentangling the nets, cutting them and bringing them ashore and eventually discarding the nets.