Interview speakers 2024

Pascal van Erp: Doing well under water

Diver PascalvanErp
Diver PascalvanErp

Hidden from view, lost fishing nets on the seabed still catch fish. Ghost Diving is actively committed and tries to do something about the major problem. An interview with Pascal van Erp.

You started taking diving lessons in 2005 and a year later you were diving on wrecks in the North Sea. 

An experience with consequences… tell me?

The big step that I took very quickly had a lot to do with my insight and, above all, experience in diving. You are suddenly exposed to quite intense circumstances and that immediately helped me a lot. I realize that you have to like this too, it is not something that everyone who starts diving is looking for. What's more, I was confronted with the facts regarding lost fishing gear. I literally got into the mess. As you know, that never left me.

When did the removal of lost nets really start to 'get out of hand'? When did Ghost Diving start?

After years of being active with Ben Stiefelhagen, during which Duik De Noordzee Schoon (DDNZS) was set up, I thought it was time for globalization. I first tried this within DDNZS, but there was no interest in this. This became the start of Ghost Diving (still Ghost Fishing at the time). We immediately addressed a number of safety issues. The diving team consists only of technical divers with strict standardization in training, procedures and equipment.

Diver PascalvanErp

Is the problem of lost fishing gear in the North Sea really that big? Can't the nets just be left in place? You don't see anything, do you?

The problem is enormous: Decades of intensive fishing have left their mark. Finding lost fishing gear is not that simple anywhere in the world, we literally find it on every object or obstruction on the North Sea floor. In most cases these are shipwrecks. The big problem is that fishing gear continues to do what it was designed for, even after loss: Fishing.

How do you actually get a fishing net above water?

There are many ways to do this and we have refined and recorded several methods over the time we have been active as our experience has grown. But basically it all remains the same: It has to go up and in most cases we do this with lifting bags. I say most cases, because there have been times when we have called for the help of a crane.

What happens to the collected nets?

The recovered fishing nets, in fact all the types of waste we collect, quickly turned out to be a problem. If you take this from the sea, it is officially your property and you must also dispose of it. This is of course very strange, but because the North Sea is not managed in the same way as the interior of the Netherlands, this is just the way it is. An NGO approached us a few months after our founding and proposed a partnership to find a good solution for the recovered nets. This collaboration was then called the Healthy Seas Initiative, which involved a Nylon manufacturer who wanted to take the Nylon materials for reuse. This initiative has now grown into a large foundation called the Healthy Seas Foundation. We now have hundreds of partners and we also use materials other than just nylon for new purposes such as products. 

Diver PascalvanErp

Is Ghost Diving only active in the North Sea?

Our concept proved to be a complete success with divers looking for a purpose in diving. Let's be honest; you train yourself to a high level. Then you also need goals to do justice to these skills. The first international teams that wanted to roll out our concept in their own country registered a year later. We are currently active in 19 countries.

Fishermen are probably happy with your clean-up work?

Not at first! Sometimes it takes some convincing in new countries, but they generally understand by now that we do not exist to destroy fishing. We exist to find a solution to a problem that doesn't even involve fishing on purpose.

Diving in the North Sea cannot be compared to a dive in Vinkeveen. How do you deal with these challenges?

Safety is mitigation of risks. The first and simplest step is to reduce unnecessary risks. Consider, for example, redundant equipment and standardization thereof. But this also extends into diving in team formation, procedures, gases, etc. Fortunately, some (technical) diving organizations such as Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) were already well versed in this. Team members with whom we started Ghost Diving in 2012 were already trained and affiliated with this. It was a logical step for us to adopt this and introduce it as a standard requirement. The choice for technical divers only is mainly based on the type of training. Technical diving training, unlike recreational training, focuses on team play and task loading. That's what we have to be good at. Diving should be second nature, automatic. Your job is cleaning up underwater debris, not diving itself.

Diver PascalvanErp

As a diver, how do I qualify to help? Is there training for this?

No. The selection of divers that allows us to carry out our projects safely is not only based on training. We look at the person and especially the ability to work together in a team. A team is only as strong as its weakest link. You only find out when things get really exciting. This includes no visibility under water, greater depths and natural influences such as currents, waves and temperature. At Ghost Diving we also do not provide training, this is a conscious choice. A training course is aimed at an individual. We start from a team perspective where we include an already well-trained technical diver. We then work with Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) that we have developed ourselves, with which the teams further develop themselves. Interested parties first go out into the North Sea with our teams a few times, where they can only watch and experience whether they feel comfortable with what we do.

Poor visibility, currents, the underwater world is unpredictable. Do you also use modern techniques that are available?

Yes and no. It is still very difficult to replace people with technology in the work we do. What can be done is complement each other. We work with drones, both in the air and underwater for surveys. Fortunately, technology is moving quickly. We continue to innovate and work with partners to make progress in this regard. The main partners here are Deep Trekker (Canada) and a partnership between Hyundai Motor Europe and the Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI).

Diver PascalvanErp

Do you also work with other organizations?

Of course. As Ghost Diving, we naturally work with local partners at international locations such as diving schools, charters and NGOs who can help us in our projects in all kinds of ways. This also works best. This way we don't have to reinvent everything ourselves and the local population is directly involved. A classic win-win. We also regularly collaborate with fellow organizations. We are always very clear that we strictly adhere to our SOPs in terms of requirements to guarantee our high safety standards. This sometimes goes so far that it means that the divers of the collaborating organizations are limited in their tasks or even cannot dive with us at all.  

Which project are you most proud of? 

That is our Journey to Ithaca project in 2021. The plan was to clean up an abandoned aquaculture (fish farm) that was destroyed by a hurricane in its entirety, both under and above water. Something that even the Greek government did not want to do. This project was so complex and progressive that we were literally thought to be crazy by the locals. I often thought about this before and during the project, but we did it. After just over a week, we managed to remove a total of 76 tons of waste with 45 volunteers, including 20 divers. This has left an indelible impression on the island of Ithaca, its people and even the Greek government.

You are one of the guest speakers at Duikvaker. What can I expect during your presentation on February 3 and 4?

During my presentation I will provide insight into our way of working, our recent and future projects and how we achieve these in a safe manner.

Diver PascalvanErp

Information Ghost Diving

The Ghost Diving Foundation is the umbrella organization behind 19 chapters. Some of these chapters are also like us, an entity, usually a foundation or non-profit organization. We are active all over the world, even in countries where no chapter is active. Our projects are usually devised based on information about locations where problems have arisen due to lost fishing gear. Our own boat MAKO is a motorized dual-motor catamaran and is used for activities on the North Sea. 

www.ghostdiving.org

Health Seas

Within Healthy Seas we can divide the reuse of materials into three categories: Recycling, Upcycling and Regeneration. The first is the reuse of the raw materials. Usually shredded or fused, the second means that the fishing gear is reused in its original form in an alternative product. In the third, the material (Nylon) is returned to its original base using a chemical process and new yarn is then made from it.

Cor Kuyvenhoven Highres

Pascal van Erp

Information Ghost Diving
The Ghost Diving Foundation is the umbrella organization behind 19 chapters. Some of these chapters are also like us, an entity, usually a foundation or non-profit organization. We are active all over the world, even in countries where no chapter is active. Our projects are usually devised based on information about locations where problems have arisen due to lost fishing gear. Our own boat MAKO is a motorized dual-motor catamaran and is used for activities on the North Sea.
www.ghostdiving.org

Health Seas
Within Healthy Seas we can divide the reuse of materials into three categories: Recycling, Upcycling and Regeneration. The first is the reuse of the raw materials. Usually shredded or fused, the second means that the fishing gear is reused in its original form in an alternative product. In the third, the material (Nylon) is returned to its original base using a chemical process and new yarn is then made from it.

Share this message:

Duikvaker is organized by The Exhibition Company

info@exhibitioncompany.nl • www.exhibitioncompany.nl
IBAN: NL77 RABO 0341 4557 41 • Chamber of Commerce: Utrecht 30122269 • VAT: 803128046B01