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The Midnight Hour — Ghost Diving USA

Mission JournalThe Midnight Hour

The Midnight Hour

Location: Catalina Island

Site: The Midnight Hour

Boat: Giant Stride

Mission Lead: Daniel Pio

Net Retrieval: Daniel Pio, Jeremy Jodoin, Juan Torres, Norbert Lee, Gavin Davenport

Surface Support: Angie Biggs, Jennifer Overby

Mission Impact: Approximately 75 pounds of net (roughly 200 square feet) removed from the Midnight Hour, plus a lost water ski recovered on the ride home.

Team Ghost Diving USA headed back out aboard the Giant Stride for another round at the Midnight Hour, the sunken squid boat off Catalina that has become our most active project of 2026. Every trip this year has taken another bite out of the net draped across the wreck, and this one was no different.

Gearing up on the Giant Stride.
Gearing up on the Giant Stride.

With Daniel Pio leading the mission, the team gathered at the dock, ran through the briefing, and made the crossing under sunny skies. A strong surface current was running at the site, so the divers took their time on the descent and followed the line down to the wreck.

  • Working a section of net free of the wreck.
    Working a section of net free of the wreck.
  • Checking the net for marine life before the cut.
    Checking the net for marine life before the cut.

On the bottom, the team went to work on the next section of net, cutting it free of the structure, bundling it, and rigging lift bags to send it to the surface. As always, every piece was checked for entangled marine life before it was cut. The wreck is alive with fish, and more than one lift bag went up through a swirling school on its way to the boat.

  • A lift bag heads for the surface through a school of fish.
    A lift bag heads for the surface through a school of fish.
  • Bag away.
    Bag away.

At the surface, Angie and Jennifer tracked the bags as they popped and, with the crew of the Giant Stride, hauled the net aboard and up the ladder. When the day was tallied, the team had raised roughly 75 pounds of net, approximately 200 square feet, off the Midnight Hour. On the ride home the crew spotted a lost water ski adrift and plucked it out of the water too; not ghost gear, but debris that did not belong in the ocean either.

  • Up the ladder with another armful of net.
    Up the ladder with another armful of net.
  • Close up: the net that came off the wreck.
    Close up: the net that came off the wreck.

Net remains on the wreck, and the team will keep chipping away at it. Every section that comes up is one that can no longer entangle the fish, lobster, and other marine life that now call the Midnight Hour home.

Life on the wreck: the reason the net has to come off.
Life on the wreck: the reason the net has to come off.

A very special thank you to the crew of the Giant Stride, and to our partners at Healthy Seas and Hyundai USA for supporting our clean-up efforts.

The team with the day's haul back at the dock.
The team with the day's haul back at the dock.