According to the Con Co Island Marine Protected Area Management Board, abandoned net removal operations are normally carried out in July and September, toward the end of the fishing season, before the rainy and stormy season brings harsher weather conditions.

The Con Co Island Marine Protected Area includes a strictly protected zone spanning more than 530 hectares, featuring coral reefs home to more than 100 species and diverse marine ecosystems.

Located at the southern gateway to the Gulf of Tonkin, the waters around the island have long been fishing grounds for hundreds of boats.

Years of fishing have inevitably left behind pieces of torn, damaged or lost fishing gear on the seabed.

These abandoned fishing nets are known as “ghost nets.” Some stretch for hundreds of meters and, after being lost, continue to drift or become entangled in rocky and coral reefs.

And these nets continue to trap marine life.

During the diving operation in late July, the divers took turns descending to the seabed.

At depths of 10-15 meters, they found sections of net tens of meters long tightly wrapped around rocks and coral.

After removing each section, the divers bundled it together and brought it to the surface.

Piece by piece, the ghost nets were pulled from the seabed.

“Divers have to approach each section of net and use their hands and specialized tools to remove individual mesh loops caught on rocks,” Nguyen Van Hoa, director of the Con Co island Marine Protected Area Management Board, said.

“It takes the team hours to separate the nets from the coral reefs without damaging the ecosystem underneath,” he added.

Along with ghost nets, the divers also collected ropes, cans, bottles and other types of trash lodged among the rocky reefs. All of these can become deadly traps for marine life.

Within just a few days, the team cleared 3.5 hectares of seabed.

Their “catch” amounted to 61kg of dried waste, including more than 40kg of ghost nets and various types of rope.

Local fishermen and tourists join conservation efforts

Of the eight divers currently involved in removing ghost nets, five are staff members of the marine protected area, while the other three are fishermen from Con Co Island.

Hoa said the three fishermen were sent to Khanh Hoa Province in June to undergo a scuba-diving training course.

After completing the course, they received international diving certificates.

When they returned to the island, the management board added them to its diving team to help remove ghost nets and rescue marine life.

Nguyen Van Dan, 33, is one of the three fishermen who recently joined the conservation diving team.

Dan said when the management board invited him to join the team to search for and remove ghost nets, he immediately agreed because he considered the work highly meaningful.

Dan remains a fisherman and joins the diving team whenever there is a ghost-net removal operation.

“Only after diving to the seabed did I realize how many hazards there are for marine life,” Dan said.

“Some nets that have drifted in from elsewhere become entangled in the rocky reefs around Con Co, while ropes can lie there like nooses,” he recalled.

“We need conservation to ensure sustainable exploitation.”

Tourists have also joined ghost-net removal dives.

Tran Khuong Canh, deputy director of the Con Co Island Marine Protected Area Management Board, recalled about three years ago, several groups of professional Vietnamese divers visiting Con Co proactively contacted the marine protected area and joined efforts to remove ghost nets from the seabed.

The activity has since been shared on social media to raise awareness of the need to protect coral reefs and marine resources.