Mike Mate

Just north of Anholt, a small Danish island in the Kattegat Sea, lies an area marked on the chart as ‘Sanden’. On the Swedish side of Sanden lie two banks, Fladen and Lille Middelgrund, those have been our camera focus for the past week. At times we have drifted across with only four meters of water beneath the keel. We found kelp forests, merle beds, bubble reefs and large swathes of sand where the sea-pens and dead-mans-fingers have been trawled away. The snag happened on the Danish side of Sanden in a ‘Nature 2000 Designated Area’ – an area of important ecological value that needs to be protected. Nearing midnight at the end of a dramatic sweep, the camera flying just a couple of meters above the sea-bed – due to poor visibility – we got caught. In less than an hour we had documented four spookey-nets (ghost nets, lost trawls that fish for eternity). The fifth ghost-net popped into view, up camera, up, up, up. Winch lever on full reverse. The net settled over the lens. Camera tore at it, tried to get away, took a tumble, ploughed into the sandy bottom, bounced. A mean rope then passed across the screen and stayed there, the camera stopped. Winch lever flipped to full forward, paying out cable as the Rainbow Warrior drifted away from the snagged camera. Engine came on in less than two minutes, but as I came astern the wind called and guided the Rainbow Warrior over the top of the cable. I clutched-out, to avoid fouling the propeller, and ran to the bow to release the anchor. We came to a swinging stop 470 meters away from the camera – only 30 meters of cable left on the winch-drum. In the morning divers traced the cable to the camera, snagged in 20 meters of water. they cut away at the ghost net and brought the camera to the surface. Contacts cleaned, lights checked, camera rolling. Back into the water.