Latest news with #marinerescue

ABC News
21-07-2025
- ABC News
Search area expanded after fisher goes missing from Batemans Bay
A multi-agency search for a missing fisherman has been expanded to include about half of the New South Wales coastline. Marine Rescue vessels have been deployed between Port Stephens and the Victorian border to search for the man, who departed from Batemans Bay Marina at about 6am on Saturday. It is believed the 56-year-old was heading towards the continental shelf to catch tuna. In a statement NSW Police said the search was expanded on Monday afternoon "following unconfirmed sightings of the vessel by members of the public". Authorities have not verified any sightings of the man and his eight-metre-long Arvor cruiser vessel since the search commenced on Saturday evening. Marine Rescue Inspector Stuart Massey said up to 30 volunteers had been on the water during some days of the search. "When they were first out there they were out there till after midnight, then a lot of those crews backed up again the next morning," he said. "They are determined to get back out there and do their bit, but they've been working incredibly long hours out there." Inspector Massey said conditions on Monday morning were favourable for crews searching near Narooma and Bermagui. "There's not a great deal of swell or wind out there … that's making it a little bit more comfortable for the crews," he said. The search has been led by the NSW Police Marine Area Command alongside Marine Rescue and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA). Multiple interstate aircraft are also involved, according to AMSA. Police have not confirmed the identity of the fisherman.


The Guardian
12-07-2025
- General
- The Guardian
One wrong move could be fatal: the divers risking their lives to save whales from ‘ghost nets'
After a day of scuba diving, Luis Antonio 'Toño' Lloreda was exhausted. Then a friend brought urgent news. 'Toño, man, there's a whale caught in a net out there.' Lloreda, 43, had freed other, smaller wildlife from fishing nets but this would be his first marine animal of such size. The four to five metres-long juvenile humpback, accompanied by its mother, had a net studded with hooks wrapped around its fin and mouth. One wrong move could have been fatal for Lloreda or the whale. 'To connect with the whale, I used what we call intuitive interspecies communication,' says Lloreda, explaining that this involves non-verbal, energetic communication. 'I asked the mother for permission – energetically,' he says. 'At first, she didn't want our help. But when I showed her we meant no harm, she let us in. Luis Antonio 'Toño' Lloreda holds a photo of the whale he freed from a fishing net 'She positioned herself below us. Then I asked the calf. When the calf became very still, I reached into her mouth and removed the net.' The mother and calf swam for 50 metres before pausing to rest. Lloreda is one of nine Guardianes del Mar (Guardians of the Sea), a grassroots African-Colombian collective from six coastal communities around Colombia's Gulf of Tribugá, a biodiversity hotspot on the Pacific coast that spans 600,000 hectares of ocean, forest and mangroves. The region, where dense Chocó rainforest meets the ocean, is a Unesco biosphere reserve and is designated a 'hope spot' by the non-profit organisation Mission Blue for its ecological significance. From left: Guardians of the sea Lloreda, Benjamin Gonzales, Camilo Morante, Neyi Ibargüen and Diego Scuba diving is crucial for identifying and removing ghost fishing gear – lost or abandoned commercial nets made mostly of near-indestructible plastics – but it is prohibitively expensive. With sponsorship from Ecomares and Conservation International, Lloreda and his colleagues have trained not only in diving, but in removing fishing gear from coral with quick, precise and safe techniques. Many guardians double as coral gardeners and reef surveyors, collecting data for both their communities and scientific partners. Three, including Lloreda, are trained to free marine animals. The guardians also act as coral gardeners and reef surveyors According to WWF, 50,000 tonnes of fishing gear are lost or abandoned in the oceans globally each year. These 'ghost nets' drift across borders, ensnaring coral, turtles, sharks – and whales. In the Gulf of Tribugá alone, Guardianes del Mar estimates that 3-4 humpback whales become entangled each year. Since its formal launch in 2023, the group says it has removed more than 120kg of ghost gear – 700kg if you include efforts since 2017. Learning to dive has been essential to the community's efforts to protect their environment, says Neyi Ibargüen, 32, the gulf's first certified female diver. 'Wherever ghost gear lands becomes a cemetery. But we can't save what we can't see.' Guardianes del Mar is working to certify more local divers so they can have a greater impact. But it faces mounting logistical and financial hurdles. Morante, scissors in hand, removes fishing rope from the coral 'We used to send the nets to Buenaventura for recycling, but fuel costs are too high,' says Benjamin Gonzales, 53, one of the senior guardians. There are no roads – the communities are connected mainly by boat – so any rubbish or recycling must be transported out by boat or plane. Today, the nets are repurposed into bracelets and sold in Germany and locally in Nuquí, the main coastal municipality. Lead weights are melted down into new dive weights for the local shop, run by Guardianes del Mar advocate Liliana Arango. The spirit of mutual care between people and nature runs deep in Tribugá, where the population numbers about 7,000. African-Colombian communities here are descended from formerly enslaved people who escaped Spanish rule and crossed the jungle to reach the coast. They were welcomed by the Indigenous Emberá, and today co-govern the region through a state-recognised model of local autonomy. A recently recovered net is loaded with weights, which can be melted down into new dive weights This community-led stewardship not only helps tackle ghost nets but was crucial in defeating plans to build a deepwater port in Tribugá – a development that would have brought roads, industry and irreversible damage to the area. 'We saw how the port in Buenaventura changed everything – more violence, displacement, pollution. We didn't want that here,' says Camilo Morante, 25, the youngest guardian and the group's legal representative. Buenaventura, 200km south of the Gulf of Tribugá, became Colombia's largest Pacific port after privatisation in the 1990s. Promises of development never materialised. Instead, crime and poverty surged, prompting mass protests in 2017 and 2021. Morante knows the strength of everyone working together and how much it has helped the guardians. 'Everyone in this community fishes, so we can't tell anyone to stop using nets,' he says. 'The most important thing is that we raise consciousness locally so that we understand the consequences of our actions. With one end tethered to the boat in the distance, Morante has the task of rolling up the massive net


The Guardian
11-07-2025
- General
- The Guardian
One wrong move could be fatal: the divers risking their lives to save whales from ‘ghost nets'
After a day of scuba diving, Luis Antonio 'Toño' Lloreda was exhausted. Then a friend brought urgent news. 'Toño, man, there's a whale caught in a net out there.' Lloreda, 43, had freed other, smaller wildlife from fishing nets but this would be his first marine animal of such size. The four to five metres-long juvenile humpback, accompanied by its mother, had a net studded with hooks wrapped around its fin and mouth. One wrong move could have been fatal for Lloreda or the whale. 'To connect with the whale, I used what we call intuitive interspecies communication,' says Lloreda, explaining that this involves non-verbal, energetic communication. 'I asked the mother for permission – energetically,' he says. 'At first, she didn't want our help. But when I showed her we meant no harm, she let us in. Luis Antonio 'Toño' Lloreda holds a photo of the whale he freed from a fishing net 'She positioned herself below us. Then I asked the calf. When the calf became very still, I reached into her mouth and removed the net.' The mother and calf swam for 50 metres before pausing to rest. Lloreda is one of nine Guardianes del Mar (Guardians of the Sea), a grassroots African-Colombian collective from six coastal communities around Colombia's Gulf of Tribugá, a biodiversity hotspot on the Pacific coast that spans 600,000 hectares of ocean, forest and mangroves. The region, where dense Chocó rainforest meets the ocean, is a Unesco biosphere reserve and is designated a 'hope spot' by the non-profit organisation Mission Blue for its ecological significance. From left: Guardians of the sea Lloreda, Benjamin Gonzales, Camilo Morante, Neyi Ibargüen and Diego Scuba diving is crucial for identifying and removing ghost fishing gear – lost or abandoned commercial nets made mostly of near-indestructible plastics – but it is prohibitively expensive. With sponsorship from Ecomares and Conservation International, Lloreda and his colleagues have trained not only in diving, but in removing fishing gear from coral with quick, precise and safe techniques. Many guardians double as coral gardeners and reef surveyors, collecting data for both their communities and scientific partners. Three, including Lloreda, are trained to free marine animals. The guardians also act as coral gardeners and reef surveyors According to WWF, 50,000 tonnes of fishing gear are lost or abandoned in the oceans globally each year. These 'ghost nets' drift across borders, ensnaring coral, turtles, sharks – and whales. In the Gulf of Tribugá alone, Guardianes del Mar estimates that 3-4 humpback whales become entangled each year. Since its formal launch in 2023, the group says it has removed more than 120kg of ghost gear – 700kg if you include efforts since 2017. Learning to dive has been essential to the community's efforts to protect their environment, says Neyi Ibargüen, 32, the gulf's first certified female diver. 'Wherever ghost gear lands becomes a cemetery. But we can't save what we can't see.' Guardianes del Mar is working to certify more local divers so they can have a greater impact. But it faces mounting logistical and financial hurdles. Morante, scissors in hand, removes fishing rope from the coral 'We used to send the nets to Buenaventura for recycling, but fuel costs are too high,' says Benjamin Gonzales, 53, one of the senior guardians. There are no roads – the communities are connected mainly by boat – so any rubbish or recycling must be transported out by boat or plane. Today, the nets are repurposed into bracelets and sold in Germany and locally in Nuquí, the main coastal municipality. Lead weights are melted down into new dive weights for the local shop, run by Guardianes del Mar advocate Liliana Arango. The spirit of mutual care between people and nature runs deep in Tribugá, where the population numbers about 7,000. African-Colombian communities here are descended from formerly enslaved people who escaped Spanish rule and crossed the jungle to reach the coast. They were welcomed by the Indigenous Emberá, and today co-govern the region through a state-recognised model of local autonomy. A recently recovered net is loaded with weights, which can be melted down into new dive weights This community-led stewardship not only helps tackle ghost nets but was crucial in defeating plans to build a deepwater port in Tribugá – a development that would have brought roads, industry and irreversible damage to the area. 'We saw how the port in Buenaventura changed everything – more violence, displacement, pollution. We didn't want that here,' says Camilo Morante, 25, the youngest guardian and the group's legal representative. Buenaventura, 200km south of the Gulf of Tribugá, became Colombia's largest Pacific port after privatisation in the 1990s. Promises of development never materialised. Instead, crime and poverty surged, prompting mass protests in 2017 and 2021. Morante knows the strength of everyone working together and how much it has helped the guardians. 'Everyone in this community fishes, so we can't tell anyone to stop using nets,' he says. 'The most important thing is that we raise consciousness locally so that we understand the consequences of our actions. With one end tethered to the boat in the distance, Morante has the task of rolling up the massive net

CTV News
30-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
Vancouver rescue welcomes first seal pup of 2025
Rescued harbour seal pup Zeus is seen in this image handed out by the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society. A tiny pup named Zeus is officially the first harbour seal rescued by the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society in the 2025 season. A member of the public found the seal alone on the shores of White Rock Tuesday morning and called VAMMR, according to the organization, which deployed rescuers to the scene and brought the pup to the centre. Zeus was covered in white lanugo fur, which seals typically shed before birth, indicating he was born prematurely, VAMMR explained. 'This little pup is incredibly vulnerable,' said Lindsaye Akhurst, senior manager of VAMMR, in a media release Friday. 'He came in hypothermic, hungry and with remnants of his umbilical cord. Thanks to the quick call we received, our team was able to get him the urgent care he needed.' Zeus the seal Rescued harbour seal pup Zeus is seen in this image handed out by the Vancouver Aquarium Marine Mammal Rescue Society. The seal got his mythological moniker through a program that allows donors to name the rescued animal whose care they're funding. The rescue marks the start of the charity's season, which it says could be a busy one. VAMMR reminds the public to be 'seal smart' and keep their distance from pups, and call the organization if they believe one is in distress. Read more: What do I do if I see a seal pup on the beach? Vancouver rescue launches awareness campaign


BBC News
28-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Locals save porpoise on beach in Kilkeel
Helping save a stranded porpoise isn't one of the normal duties for a caravan park that's exactly what Kilkeel man John McKibbin did on Friday McKibbin, from Leestone Caravan Park in County Down, was "sitting in the house with my feet up" when he got the call from some residents "for a bit of help" about a young harbour porpoise that was stranded on a nearby beach. British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) said they understand people want to help, but "always recommend they call our 24/7 rescue hotline in order for us to dispatch specialist Marine Mammal Medics". 'Hitting into rocks' "I got a phone call to say the porpoise was on the beach, and there was a crowd in the caravan site getting together to see if they could do something for it," he are two beach areas near the caravan site, so Mr McKibbin had difficulty finding the porpoise at first."Our caravan site is on a corner of the coast and we went to the front beach but couldn't see it."Then we went to the back beach and saw Jason …trying to put it into the water."When he arrived, a resident, Jason Hughes "was in the water with it".Mr McKibbin said he saw Jason "push the porpoise into the sea". "It was hitting into rocks and it obviously didn't have a clear path to get free," he said."I arrived down and said to Jason we need to lift it and put it into deep water." 'A bit distressed' "Jason took his coat off and we put the coat underneath the porpoise, so we just used his coat as a sling to carry it and then we carried it across the beach about 50 ft and then we put it into the water and away it went."Once Mr McKibbin and Mr Hughes picked the porpoise up with the aid of a jacket, "it was pretty easy".He said they thought of using the jacket because "you don't want to put too much pressure on its organs when lifting it up, so thought that the coat would spread the weight over its body."We just put the coat underneath it, and it was flapping its tail about, you could see it was a bit distressed," he said."Whenever we put the porpoise into the water, you could see it swimming away, and it was just coming on the edge of dark, but you could see it swimming on out to sea." 'Happily ever after' Mr McKibbin said when the two men picked the porpoise up, "it actually was sort of relaxed"."It only just flapped its tail when we put it into the water."He swam away, and we watched him until he disappeared under the water completely."It wasn't injured; it swam away on out."Mr McKibbin said it felt "brilliant" to have rescued the young purpoise. "It definitely would have died, because it couldn't get out into the deep water."Rescuing a porpoise was a first for Mr McKibbin, who said: "It's usually people we save on the beach"."Hopefully, it'll go out and find the rest of its pod and live happily ever after." What should you do if you spot stranded sea life? British Divers Marine Life Rescue offer advice about what to do if you find a stranded whale, dolphin or a statement to BBC News NI, BDML said: "Proper health checks are necessary" to determine if a cetacean is "in poor condition or has an underlying problem" and the BDML "dispatch specialist Marine Mammal Medics to respond appropriately to the animal, acting on their best welfare interests".