Heritage Malta completes project on historic wreck site - The Malta Independent independent.com.mt - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from independent.com.mt Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Photo: Heritage Malta
The threat is also there to visiting divers, often unaware of the risk of entanglement posed by nets, lines, and other lost fishing gear.
In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the threats posed by ghost gear, and a growing number of grassroot initiatives, both locally and internationally, have targeted this problem.
In Malta, the presence of ghost gear on historic wreck sites has been noted through diver surveys and as a result, Heritage Malta, in collaboration with the ATLAM Sub Aqua Club, initiated a net removal project on its underwater sites.
Throughout May, June, and July, the project concentrated on the HMS Nasturtium wreck site, located approximately 10km off the coast of Valletta.
Renewal evaluation of the International Centre for Underwater Archaeology, a UNESCO Category 2 Centre (Zadar, Republic of Croatia) reliefweb.int - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from reliefweb.int Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Heritage Malta
The Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit (UCHU) within Heritage Malta, in its continuing collaboration with the ATLAM Dive Club, completed the removal of a net from the Southwold Bow site, one of Heritage Malta’s underwater sites.
The Southwold Bow site lies approximately 2.4km off the Marsascala coast and rests at a depth of 65 metres. HMS Southwold was a British Second World War Hunt-class destroyer. In March 1942, she struck a mine and split, sinking to the seabed in two sections (bow and stern).
The net removal operation was a joint effort between UCHU and the local ATLAM dive club. Six divers participated in one dive, successfully lifting the net and sending it to the surface.
Divers have removed a net that was obstructing the site of a British second world war Hunt-class destroyer.
The net was at HM’s
Southwold Bow site, which lies approximately 2.4km off the Marsascala coast and rests at a depth of 65 metres.
In March 1942, the destroyer struck a mine and split, sinking to the seabed in two sections (bow and stern).
Six divers participated in one dive, successfully lifting the net and sending it to the surface in a joint operation by Heritage Malta’s Underwater Cultural Heritage Unit (UCHU) and ATLAM Dive Club.
Divers inspecting HM Southwold. File photo: Heritage Malta