When Edgardo Ochoa woke up in the early hours of August 20, he had a good feeling.
The palm trees outside his window were still, signaling a calm day ahead.
For two days, Ochoa, a dive specialist at Conservation International, had worked alongside 16 other divers to remove an abandoned 90-meter-long fishing net (300 feet) — nearly the length of a soccer field — that had become a deadly trap for marine animals. The process had been more complex than expected.
“I somewhat naively thought we’d be able to remove the net in a couple of dives,” said Ochoa, who led the operation. “But after years on the seafloor, the net was weighed down by sand and marine life like sea stars, seahorses, snails and sea urchins that now occupied the net and needed to be moved to a safe location.”
It took more than 40 hours underwater to finally pull the nearly 2-ton net out of the Espíritu Santo Archipelago National Park, a marine protected area off the coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico.
“This was one of the toughest removals I’ve been part of, but also one of the most rewarding,” Ochoa said. “When I saw the ship pull it out of the water, I felt so relieved, like a mountain of tension was leaving my body. We finally did it.”
Sixteen divers helped remove the ghost net over the course of three days.
The operation was far from a solo endeavor.
For years, Conservation International-México has led the charge against one of the deadliest forms of marine waste — abandoned fishing gear — by training divers, including the park rangers who patrol the protected area. Building on that groundwork, this latest mission spanned about 60 dives and united divers from Conservation International-México, the National Commission of Protected Areas, the Mexican navy and the marine nonprofit COBI.
Ochoa has had his eye on this net for five years, after the local community alerted him of its presence. It is what is known as a “ghost net,” abandoned fishing gear that wreaks havoc on marine life. According to one estimate, nearly a third of fishing lines are lost or discarded at sea. Experts estimate that more than 300,000 whales and dolphins die each year after getting tangled in them.
Tragically, over the three days it took to remove the net, the divers encountered three dead sea turtles caught in the net.
“I wonder how many turtles, sharks and sea lions have been trapped here without anyone knowing,” Ochoa said. “Removing a ghost net this size isn’t just a dive — it’s a race against time for marine life.”
Measuring nearly the length of a soccer field and weighing nearly 2 tons, it is the largest net to be removed from the ocean floor.
Ochoa, who has cleaned up thousands of pounds of abandoned fishing gear, likens the removal of ghost nets to a choreographed dance — each diver moves in unison and has a role.
To clean up this net — the largest ever removed — the divers began by cutting the net in half to make it more manageable. Initially, they planned to attach the net’s edges to lift bags — a device used to lift heavy objects underwater. But the net was so weighed down by sand that the bags weren’t strong enough, and they had to call in backup: the Mexican Navy.
“I was in the water when they began to pull it out,” Ochoa said. “Seeing the ship on the horizon and seeing the net slide out of the water was a great feeling — I’m not sure what we would have done if that didn’t work.”
Weighed down by years of sand, the net was too heavy to remove with lift bags.
Thankfully, the net was only about 9 to 12 meters (30 to 40 feet) deep which allowed the divers to stay underwater for longer periods, he said.
Over the past 20 years, Ochoa has trained nearly 200 divers around the world to safely remove ghost nets, including those involved in this operation. He says he doesn’t measure success by the amount of trash picked up, but rather by the number of divers who join his ranks.
“It’s a pay-it-forward kind of approach,” he said. “The more people we certify, the more people that can use these skills to remove any trash they encounter — whenever and wherever they’re diving.”
But this dive was personal for Ochoa — he went to university nearby and has been to the site many times on field and research trips.
“This operation was an opportunity to pay back the place that has given me so much,” he said. “In a way, it felt like a graduation for me — not only because it was bigger and more complex than anything I’ve ever done, but because this place holds a special place in my heart.”
The net likely drifted into the marine protected area after being abandoned by a tuna or shrimp fishing vessel.
Ghost nets touch every corner of the ocean, spreading on tides and currents. The main culprit is commercial fishing. Estimates suggest ghost gear accounts for 10 percent of the waste floating in the ocean, but Ochoa said it’s almost impossible to know the true impacts, because abandoned nets and gear typically come from illegal or unregulated fishing vessels and are therefore unreported.
While the net was discovered in a protected area, it likely drifted there, abandoned by a tuna or shrimp fishing vessel, said Norma Arce, a biologist at Conservation International-México.
“These removal operations are critical,” she said. “But they don’t solve the root of the problem. We need to help people understand the connection between their seafood consumption and these issues.”
As fish consumption has skyrocketed in recent decades, so too has the ghost net problem. Not only are more fishermen at sea, they use nylon fishing lines and nets that last virtually forever compared with nets of the past, made with silk or cotton.
Raising consumers’ awareness of the problem is crucial, said Esther Quintero, conservation lead at Conservation International-México.
“The ghost net crisis is driven by the overexploitation of fish,” she said. “Consumers have the power to make a difference by respecting seasonal fish and supporting sustainable sources.”
In the meantime, Ochoa will continue to pick away at the ghost net problem. His training has already helped prepare many communities to tackle it on their own, including in the Espíritu Santo Archipelago marine protected area, where park rangers will now be able to immediately respond to reports of abandoned fishing gear.
“Humans are the only living beings with the capacity to restore — no other living being has the capacity to repair nature, but we do, and we know how,” Ochoa said. “When we pulled the first section of the net, I felt like we were paying back a small part of our debt to nature. We made a little payment to help nature restore itself.”
This expedition was made possible with support from SC Johnson, which partners with Conservation International-Mexico to protect marine ecosystems and coastal communities. This collaboration has resulted in specialized training programs for the safe removal of ghost gear and other underwater debris.
In the past two years, with SC Johnson’s support, Conservation International has trained more than two dozen divers from local communities in safe net-removal techniques and has removed more than 3 tons of abandoned nets and debris from Mexico’s coastal waters.
Mary Kate McCoy is a staff writer at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates. Also, please consider supporting our critical work.