Los Angeles Yacht Club
Event: Outreach Presentation
Host: Los Angeles Yacht Club, San Pedro
Presenter: Jim Babor, President of Ghost Diving USA
Not every mission happens underwater. On August 13th, Team Ghost Diving USA was welcomed to the Los Angeles Yacht Club in San Pedro, where President Jim Babor gave a presentation to the club's members about the work we do off the Southern California coast.
Jim opened with an overview of who we are and the problem we exist to fight: the lost and abandoned fishing gear, "ghost nets" and traps, that keeps entangling and killing marine life on the wrecks and reefs off our coast long after it was lost. For a room full of people who spend their lives on the water, it is a problem that hits close to home.
From there, Jim walked the club through some of our recent cleanups, the ongoing work on the Tuna Clipper, the major recovery effort on the UB-88, and the other sites our dive teams have been steadily clearing. He shared what the dives actually involve: careful gas planning, staged decompression, divers cutting net free by hand and lifting it to the surface, and a dedicated documentation and surface support crew on every mission.
Just as important is what happens to the net after it comes up. Jim explained the full side of the work: recovered nylon net is delivered to Aquafil, where it is recycled into ECONYL® regenerated nylon and given a second life rather than left to fish forever on the bottom. None of this happens alone, our cleanups are made possible by partners like Healthy Seas.
Jim closed with an invitation: there are many ways for a community like the Los Angeles Yacht Club to get involved, volunteering, donating, or partnering with us to keep these missions going. Conversations like this one are how the work grows, and we were grateful for such an engaged and welcoming audience.
A very special thank you to the Los Angeles Yacht Club and its members for hosting us and for their interest in protecting the waters we all share.