Image Gallery
07 November 2007
Turtles rescued in the middle of the Arafura Sea
Saturday 22nd September was unlike any other day of ‘patrolling the line’ during Operation RESOLUTE for HS Blue crew, currently embarked in Leeuwin Class Hydrographic Survey Vessel HMAS MELVILLE (CMDR P.J. Kenshole). Thanks to the keen gunnery eyes of watch on deck, a fishing net was discovered abandoned in the middle of the Arafura Sea. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that a number of turtles were caught up in the net, and more importantly, they were still alive.
The rescue of these protected marine creatures and the recovery of the net quickly became a whole ship evolution when, just like an iceberg, it was found that at least 3 quarters of the discarded net was below the waterline. It was ‘all hands on deck’ to successfully juggle the tricky task of hauling in the massive net and carefully releasing the turtles.
The first objective was to release the five trapped turtles which became the responsibility of POB Marcus Efferett and his boat crew. Once the turtles were released, then began the task of hauling the net onto MELVILLE, preventing the capture of further marine creatures. An easy task in theory, but the execution proved to be another story.
Using the foc’sle’s capstans, lines were rigged in a pulley system to heave the net in. Whilst the system worked initially, the net’s sheer weight began to take its toll, forcing it to break under its own mass and fall back into the sea. The evolution became more challenging when, in addition to the pulley system used to heave in the net, strops were attached to the stores crane to lift the bulk of the soaking, heavy net out of the water. After four hours of careful juggling, the crew finally succeeded in bringing the last portion of netting onto the deck.
| 20070926ran8118621_001 HS Blue crew, currently embarked in Leeuwin Class Hydrographic Survey Vessel HMAS MELVILLE, discover a number of live turtles caught up in the net that were later released. (Date taken: 26 September 2007) low-res | high-res |
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| 20070926ran8118621_003 After four hours of careful juggling, the crew finally succeeded in bringing the last portion of netting onto the deck of HMAS MELVILLE. (Date taken: 26 September 2007) low-res | high-res |
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