On Sunday July 6th, our partner PAN Salvage joined the our diving team for the second time on a Healthy Seas clean-up mission. Diving with a salvage ship meant a very different kind of job for the six divers – this time above water! Their target was the wreck of the Ameland, a steamship that sank following a U-boat attack in 1940, and which is almost covered with mainly gill nets.

There was a strong wind, with waves about 1.5 metres high. The wreck lies in the Eurogeul, and tankers and cargo vessels pass very close by, so diving here is prohibited. However, the authorities granted permission for nets to be salvaged. Nets were pulled up all day using a salvage grabber fitted with two cameras, lights and blowers to clear away any sand. As expected, the first net was a bunch of gill nets containing a whole collection of dead North Sea crabs. This was a sad sight to see. More bunches of gill nets followed and even a complete beam trawl with at least half of the trawl net still attached. After a busy day’s fishing, the divers set sail for Stellendam, with an impressive 3,000 kg of dredged-up fishing gear on board.