Position Update - Arafura Sea, noon 20th July 2019
Vega
Hugh and Annie
Sat 20 Jul 2019 08:00
Yesterday afternoon we ran through another fishing line/net. This was a blue line with narrow elongated white floats threaded along it. There were no marker buoys or other means of seeing it and facing into the low, late afternoon sun was impossible to see. The first we knew of it was that well known sound of stretching nylon, slight decrease in speed followed by a thump as the line parted or freed itself. View from the rear of the boat the line could be clearly seen on the surface. Lots of fishing related incidents were being relayed from yachts taking the inshore route 20 to 30 miles off the coast of Papua New Guinea. We, along with several others, opted to go further offshore where there was merchant vessel traffic and fishermen would be unlikely to leave nets with a high risk of being run over by a large ship.
How wrong were were! One yacht at 2000 yesterday reported being trapped in nets and last heard was awaiting fishermen to arrive this morning and free him. Another caught a net close by but after 45 minutes managed to free itself and then find a way through a massive area of fishing boats lit up like a small town. We were given the coordinates of both incidents and lo, they were right on our intended track! So this morning we have taken a big detour around many fishing boats. Several have AIS identification so you have a good idea where the fleet is. Many others do not and it requires a careful radar and visual search to locate them. We think that if the fishing boats see you coming then they try and avoid your path. However, we never know whether they are laying nets, retrieving nets, fishing with long lines, trawling or whatever. Sometimes we aim between two of them if we are likely to pass their bow ends and hope that they are not at either end of a net or trawl............. we sincerely hope it isn’t going to be like this for the next three months or so.