The team was requested to help in removing a fishing net that was a problem in Shark river inlet. The net was wrapped around the bridge piling in a area that was used by both divers (skin and scuba) and fishermen.
At times it float high off the bottom and at other times it was close to the bottom and this wasn't one of those light fishing line nets, this was one of those heavy line one, almost like rope.
Both Joes, Rich, Evan and I headed up to the inlet and setup to remove it from the water. With a strong out going tide to keep the net from floating around us as we worked on it, a line was run from shore to the net.
The plan was to tie the line to the net and put some small floats on it and then cut it free from the piling and the bottom and let it be pulled from the water. I hit the water first and ran the line out to the net and Joe(OJ) followed right behind me. We unwrapped what we could and tied the line to the net and then started cutting the net free. Rich and Evan came down ready to swim the net and guide it over to the rocks and help Big Joe pull it from the water.
The plan worked better then we thought it would, once the net was cut free and guided around the piling the current just lifted it and swung right over to the rocks and Big Joe, Rich and Evan pulled it from the water.
The fishermen were happy to see it come up and the team got many pounds of sinkers from it. Now the divers don't have to worry about it anymore. Not to waste a dive, we all swam around checking out the area that was covered by the net. Rich came out with six large brass bolts and the team recovered over 40 pounds of sinkers.
We did shoot video of the mission and it can be seen on you tube,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF8PXxndplw. This is what we train to do, we work in less then good visibility and strong current and we do it safely. We can be called and have been to do many jobs and doing jobs like this help make us be ready to answer the call when it comes in!
