Christine Grosart 23/07/2024 Christine Grosart 23/07/2024

A perfect day

Last year I took part in my first open water swim triathlon - in Minehead, of all places.

The day before, Channel Events, a nonprofit outfit headed up by an enthusiastic team who just love sport and the outdoors and encouraging newcomers to get involved, laid on a practise day.

I was introduced to the brown, rather chilly Bristol Channel and with kind guidance and advice I was coaxed into the water and was swimming front crawl in my brand-new wetsuit, as if I’d been doing it all my life.

Dan Brice, who runs Channel Events, found out I was a sea kayaker and gave me the heads up on an event he runs every year.

‘Springboard into Summer’ is a chilled event, organised for reasonably experienced paddlers with guides to keep the show together. There were BBQs, guest speakers, camping and sea kayaking along the Dorset Coast. As soon as registration opened, I signed up, delighted that it did not clash with my work rota.

The date came around and I loaded my sea kayak onto the roof, packed the car full of camping kit and set off down to Burnbake campsite in Poole.

I was super excited and motivated by the promise of a circumnavigation of the Isle of Portland. I knew it was possible in a sea kayak, but having dived there for over 20 years, I was acutely aware of strong currents, short slack times and rough seas that Portland Bill was notorious for.

I decided to get back into the swing of sea kayaking on the Saturday by signing up for the Old Harry Rocks to Swanage trip. We were treated to calm, warm, balmy weather and the sea state was like glass. I had never seen Old Harry Rocks in such calm waters and as we lined our boats up on the sandy beach just along from the chain ferry to Poole, I knew we were in for a good day.

I was delighted to find I was paddling with Nienka. She was a triathlete and part of a small group of volunteers who gave me my confidence in my first wetsuited open water sea swim in Minehead the day before the triathlon there.

The sea was so calm we could play around in little rock hopping tunnels, go through arches and sea caves and enjoy a close up view that you definitely don’t get when you’re diving the area. We paddled across the bay to Swanage and stopped for an ice cream and lunch with a super friendly group of like-minded people, who loved the ocean, paddling and being outdoors.

We weaved our way back through the chalk stacks and archways, enjoying idyllic conditions. Once back at the beach, Nienka and I needed no persuading to get into our cozzies and go for a swim off the beach.

The water was chilly but it was wonderful to be swimming in clear, calm water in the UK and a rare treat for me. I spend half my year at sea but I’m not allowed to swim in it.

The evening was spent sitting around a campfire, enjoying a BBQ and some beers and a guest speaker talking about his long distance adventures.

The next morning I had signed up to the lap of Portland, as had pretty much everybody else!

We set off on the hour drive to Chesil beach and dragged our boats up onto the pebbles. A few of us had some fun seal launching onto the water and we set off on a slightly overcast morning towards the Bill.

It was a real privilege to get so close to the coastline, when normally I’m far out on a dive boat zooming past. The nooks and crannies, caverns, archways, crystal clear water with a green hue, were so pretty and inviting and I relished every moment of it.

The sun all the while was trying to appear and once round the bill, where a seal joined us at Pulpit Rock, it came out and gave us a glorious afternoon of warm sunshine and sparkly water.

We pulled into Church Ope Cove for lunch and basked in the sunshine. I couldn’t resist another swim in the glassy, clear sea. This really was the perfect day.

We continued the journey in glorious sunshine back through Portland harbour and were treated to the local dolphin putting on a display.

Time stood still and all our plans of getting away home at this time and that time were just forgotten. Days like this are becoming rarer and rarer and we all wanted to absorb every minute of it.

Sea kayaking is the most wonderful sport and allows people of all levels, ages and abilities to access beautiful parts of our coastline where larger craft cannot. It is a silent sport which causes no pollution to the environment and paddlers tend to be very environmentally aware.

Whether you are joining friends for the day, going on a solo adventure or a multi day camping trip, or even a daring long distance expedition, it really is the most wonderful way to see our winderful coast. As we passed Portland Bill a dive boat I knew passed us and not for one moment did I wish I was on it. My love of the ocean goes way beyond just diving in it and the purchase of my two Dagger Stratos boats are some of the best impulse buys I ever made!

I cannot thank Dan and his Channel Events volunteers enough for laying on such a great event. I’ve made new paddling friends and hope to be able to head out on the sea with them again in the near future.

Christine Grosart 08/12/2023 Christine Grosart 08/12/2023

Ghosts of Kernow

I love Cornwall. Who doesn’t?!

With a huge fishing community and the Ghost Fishing UK treasurer now residing there, it was a no-brainer to run our annual Ghost Fishing UK project out of Falmouth.

We booked 3 different boats over 6 days and lined up some public outreach events to capture the hearts of the holiday makers.

We kicked off at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary It was apt, as the SeaLife Trust were keen to fund our project and they also owned the seal sanctuary.

I was fortunate to interview Maz, one of the animal care team and she was explicit about how ghost gear affected and even killed many of the animals brought to the sanctuary's attention.

Working closely with the British Divers Marine Life Rescue, a handful of seals and pups each year would arrive at the sanctuary with horrific wounds from ghost gear which would remain the same size, caught around a limb or neck, while the seal continued to grow, causing awful deep lacerations.

We dived every day and I took a few days off diving to organise a social event where we invited every conservation and wildlife outfit in Cornwall to meet us, dine and drink with us and to introduce ourselves properly.

We were very warmly welcomed and everybody who came were amazed at how much ghost gear we had retrieved in such a short space of time.

We held public outreach events on Marazion beach and Maenporth beach just down the road from our campsite.

I managed to get a super early morning radio interview and Sophie our media lady got is into the local press.

We had our eye on Louis Matisse Nichols, otherwise known as Mini Beach Cleaner.

Louis, 11, has been beach cleaning since he was two years old, and started his famous Instagram account @minibeachcleaner two years ago.

His pictures on Instagram depict the reality of the state of our beaches. Based in Newlyn, Cornwall, Louis and his family clean up litter on almost a daily basis.

At this time of year, with the school break, bank holidays, and summer weather, the beaches are being wrecked by thoughtless tourists and holidaymakers who buy bodyboards, balls, spades, and lots of food, and discard it all on the beach for someone else to deal with.

That is where Mini Beach Cleaner aka Louis comes in. Using his wonderful creativity, Louis creates collages from the vast amounts of rubbish he collects on Cornish beaches. Louis says he has “a list in [his] mind of what [he’s] going to create” and he takes inspiration from “the animals, and farms”.

When he was younger, Louis said to his parents that he didn’t need to go to school any longer, because being a bin-man meant no need for qualifications.

“He is incredibly creative” says his mum Nadine, who helps him with his beach cleans and acts as camera operator for his Instagram account. with chairman of ocean clean-up charity Ghost Fishing UK, for a taster session in how to remove deadly and toxic ghost fishing gear from the ocean.

We were so impressed with young Louis that we decided to invite him to join us.

Meeting at Porthkerris Dive Centre, Louis met Rich Walker, Chair of Ghost Fishing UK, to have his first ever scuba diving lesson. As a highly experienced dive instructor, Rich taught Louis how to use the breathing apparatus, hand signals for underwater communication, and most importantly how GFUK survey retrieve ghost gear.

Of course, no Ghost Fishing dive is so easy. Soon after Louis was getting his wetnotes out and surveying the net. He was then shown how to use the inflation nozzle to inflate a bright pink Halcyon Lift Bag and raise the net to the surface.

Insanely shy and probably with no concept of what a difference he is making - and will doubtless continue to make - to the our oceans, Louis didn't quite know what to say or do with himself afterwards so we took him out on the boat to watch the real Ghost Fishing divers in action and we even got to see a pod of dolphins who came out for the occasion.

We are told he did not stop talking about it for weeks afterwards!

The team wrapped up the week having recovered 540 kilos of lost ghost gear and we are extremely grateful to the SeaLife Trust for their support.

*Ghost Fishing UK divers clean up the Epsilon*

Christine Grosart 06/12/2023 Christine Grosart 06/12/2023

The monster net

“Oh Hello, this is the Guardian. Do you have a moment?”

I was only a few slurps into my morning coffee and my breakfast was about to go cold.

“Sure, how can I help?”

Volunteering for the charity Ghost Fishing UK always threatened to take over our lives and we can safely say it has done just that.

Chair Richard Walker, myself and third trustee and operations officer Fred Nunn, a long-standing friend of about 8 years, all work pretty much full time in addition to our real full time jobs to run this world leading charity.

We have the largest group of Ghost Fishing trained divers in the world, with 70 on our books and 120 on our waiting list. This is in addition to a large pool of surface volunteers who we can call on at any time for help.

It is an incredible achievement and now, as a completely independent charity we are free to do things our way - and the organisation has flourished.

When I first took a bunch of Bristol no.3 British Sub Aqua Club members on a group trip with my small business, WetWellies Caving - my first customers in fact when I started in 2012 - I had no idea it would lead to this!

Much of what we do is self-taught. The skillsets we have adopted over the 5 years of running Ghost Fishing UK have sent many of our brains bulging. Who knew we'd have to write KML files or navigate the .gov website minefields? Risk assessments, mission statements, method statements, articles, training courses, website...you name it!

Many of us are doing things we probably never would have done otherwise and it has been a true rollercoaster. Fred was terribly nervous in front of the camera - now he takes live BBC interviews in his stride.

*Diver attaching lift bag to a net. Image: Christine Grosart*

I had no press training but found myself having to learn the tough way and absorbing any education around the subject that I could.

This was one such occasion. I had written a press release using a template and some excellent educational materials from Class:PR and it went crazy!

After the Guardian, we started to see that a lot of news outlets were picking up our story.

Scuba divers from Plymouth had reported a very long, lost gill net on the popular and very beautiful Hand Deeps reef.

With a few reports and details in hand, we were pretty sure we could find it and deployed two Ghost Fishing UK teams onto the water. We were treated to a nice big hard boat, Seeker from In Deep Dive Centre and a professional crew who are totally on board with the charity.

One team located it and began surveying it.

Luckily, I was in that team so set about the net with my camera, documenting the trapped life in it.

*The lost net at Hand Deeps. Photos: Christine Grosart/Ghost Fishing UK*

Spider crabs, lobsters, fish and even urchins had got tangled up in the unforgiving gill net which had been fishing around the clock, indiscriminately.

Once surveyed, the team returned with knives, lift bags, stage bottles for lifting gas and a plan.

The net came free from the reef relatively easily and with no damage to the environment.

Once back on board the boat, the 2 hour ‘crab picking’ began.

Each trapped animal was documented according to species and whether it was dead or alive.

Luckily the sun was shining and the In Deep crew waited patiently as we dealt with each animal.

Over 100 animals were trapped in the net and around 80% were still alive and returned to the sea.

The net was measured at over 200 metres long (Fred is very keen on measuring and weighing things accurately) but its owner, not surprisingly, could not be found.

I put my new-found press release writing skills to the test and with a good story to tell, kept my fingers crossed.

BBC Spotlight did two great pieces on the story and we were then contacted by ITV and Channel 4, all keen to come out and film with us in the future.

Our social media lady, Dolly, also set about Instagram and Twitter and the levels of engagement were phenomenal.

It was a huge boost to the team after several months of being unable to dive, never mind head out on a mission and it was fantastic to get this net out of the sea so efficiently after a long time off.

Check out this fab news piece by the BBC!

Film about the project, created by Christine Grosart

Christine Grosart 05/12/2023 Christine Grosart 05/12/2023

Someone else's job - isn't it?

Published 2020

When Justin Hofman showed the world an image of a seahorse clinging to a plastic cotton bud, the world went into denial.

Some people tried to make excuses. They tried to claim it was fake, photoshopped, not real, a lie, an exaggeration.

People didn't want to believe it.

But everyone knew it was real. So real in fact, he took lots of images that day. He simply selected the best one.

“It’s a photo that I wish didn’t exist..." he said. Who can blame him?

Last week, in October 2020, England announced a ban on plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds.

But does it go far enough?

I organised my first beach clean in 2011 and was shocked that, even after a few hours, most people on the beach hadn't moved. There was so much plastic litter that it took us all day in the sweltering heat to remove it from 100 metres of beach.

When I set up my own business, WetWellies Caving, way back in 2012, I promised from the outset that my business would be as green and environmentally friendly as it could be.

We did all our bookings electronically or by phone - we never posted out paper or spammy leaflets. We re-used drinks pouches and reduce single use plastics as much as possible. We encouraged our cavers to pick up litter both underground and on the way to and from the caves.

But given that WetWellies pretty much worked from home, I thought I'd share with you a few things I do about the house to make a small difference.

I use biodegradeable cotton buds, recycled and plastic free loo roll from Who Gives a Crap and hair products from Soul and Soap.

I buy kitchen bin liners and compost bin liners from BigGreenSmile.com. These are completely compostable and strong enough to take our household waste and leftovers.

I recycle anything that the local council will take away and run anything else up to the local recycling depot. A handy kitchen basket acts as a collecting vessel before we sort it into the recycling buckets outside.

I have lots of re-usable 'bags for life' and try to avoid single use plastic bags.

I have re-fillable bottles of ecover washing up liquid and every couple of months I get re-fills at the local organic supermarket in Castle Cary.

Buying veg at the supermarket is almost impossible without bringing home single use plastic. I try to pick up unwrapped vegetables and this I made easier by using our farm shop 1 mile away, or even better the Friday veg Market in Shepton Mallet.. Tesco already got rid of their own brand of plastic cotton buds and replaced with paper.

Sadly, many types still come in single use plastic wrapping. Another example of a gesture that only goes half way.

A few years ago I was given 'The Self Sufficient-ish Bible' which is full of great ideas to try to do things in a better way for the environment without having to go to extremes. It offers realistic and achievable small changes for normal, busy people.

And finally, I compost any food scraps and offcuts which go into a fully compostable bag which we have trained the local recycling crew to take as well.

I sat down and worked out, roughly, how much single use plastic use I have used in my lifetime.

It is extremely difficult to work out, so I had a go at just working out, approximately, how many shampoo bottles I have got through as an adult.

I moved away from home and lived independently from the age of 16, so I thought I'd start there.

I have always had long hair and get through about one bottle of shampoo every 3 weeks. So:

I used about 17 shampoo bottles a year.

That's 408 single use bottles of shampoo since I was 16.

ONLY shampoo. You can double that figure for conditioner bottles.

Since 2018 I have been using shampoo and conditioner bars with no plastic packaging whatsoever. The downside is that they are more expensive and this is a problem. Single use plastic is cheap. Plastic free products have a low production volume, lower demand and thus, are dearer.

We need to make non plastic options affordable and even cheaper, before we can get everyone onboard with ditching single use plastic.

Now, I work offshore in the oil and gas industry - but before you shout 'hypocrite' from the rooftops, I should point out that I am a medic. Everyone needs a medic and, frankly, the oil and gas industry is not going to cease overnight just because Christine the medic chose a dfferent job.

I'm a Paramedic, actually and also an offshore diver medic. I look after divers in sat chambers and quite often their jobs are repairing leaks, investigating any break in containment and often making oil and gas rigs last longer so that the fulfill their worth before newer ones are built.

The vessel I work on has a very low carbon footprint and everything gets recycled. Nothing gets dumped in the sea - the fines are horrendous and the company looks bad. We even make water on board and there are recycling separation bins everywhere.

Working offshore does give me an insight into an industry not everyone has access to, plus it gave me enough spare time to support my voluntary work as trustee, secretary, photographer, instructor and general dogsbody for the ocean clean up charity, Ghost Fishing UK.

Even though my background is in medicine, I do enjoy learning about the oceans and educating myself more and more about the threats to our blue planet.

I've enjoyed some excellent (and mostly free) online learning to keep the grey matter ticking over.

Why not give it a go?

For more information, check out the Marine Conservation Society's magazine. You can join for only £3.50 a month to help protect our oceans.

There are loads of free resources, educational materials, ideas and help and you can even become a beach clean champion!

Christine Grosart 30/11/2023 Christine Grosart 30/11/2023

Sea Doggos

Tag! You’re it!

There was a sharp tug on my fin and I turned around to catch the cheeky seal diving off into the distance, pretending it wasn’t him.

This never-ending game of ‘tag’ is a favourite of the seals in the Farne Islands, Northumberland.

Around August time they get quite playful. Global Underwater Explorers UK had a group trip going and on this rare occasion, Rich and I were both free.

I needed to keep my skills up with my rebreather so took it along with me, interested to see what the seals made of the bubbleless, silent machine.

After two days of boat diving, Rich took me on a shore dive from St Abbs. I had never dived here and seized the opportunity to do some SeaSearch recording, something that had completely transformed by sea diving.

The underwater scenery was simply stunning.

There were kelp forests and steep gulleys, adorned with fluffy dead men’s fingers and corals.

Nosey, territorial Ballan Wrasse pestered us and we dived through the most beautiful natural rock archway.

We had lunch in a café in the harbour and dive 2 was equally as stunning. British sea diving on a good day is as good as anywhere in Europe and I enjoyed filming with the new Paralenz Dive Camera.

Christine Grosart 06/11/2023 Christine Grosart 06/11/2023

Pretty Persier

The lock down hokey cokey was starting to take its toll this summer, I’m sure, for all of us.

I had booked some blue shark snorkelling with Indeep as a ‘salvage the summer’ attempt but the weather ruined it and we couldn’t go.

So, with Rich around for a couple of days we made a last-minute booking on a couple of days diving down in Plymouth.

I decided to take my KISS rebreather because I hadn’t taken it in the sea much and, well, I should really. It was only ever bought for caves, but I decided to expand my horizons.

To make life even more awkward for myself I threw the DSLR in as well and we decided to camp using my new van awning.

Of course, it rained. Non-stop. The BBQ coals that we picked up were damp and after 2 hours of trying to make fire (all the pubs were full, before you ask…) Rich finally managed a decent meal. It was cold and wet and pretty miserable. I was enormously grateful for my Fourth Element poncho which made putting up a tent in the rain significantly more bearable.

We rocked up at Indeep who provided the usual excellent service in gas and boats. We headed out to a wreck I’d never been to before - le Poulmic. Very small but teeming with life. The weather topside was what we call ‘lumpy’ and we were grateful to be beneath the waves rather than on the boat.

In the afternoon it was a classic bailout to the James Egan Layne. Each time I dive this wreck (mostly pulling ghost gear off it, to be fair) it looks different. Rich had a great time with his camera while I struggled with not-very-good macro.

After a damp night in the van, the weather had improved greatly, and we headed out to the wreck of the Persier. I was excited as I’d never dived it before, and the visibility looked promising.

I gave myself a break and took the Paralenz dive camera. I always find shooting video way easier than images!

The wreck was stunning. We could hardly see it for fish. Great for critter nerds like me but not so great for wreck photographers like Rich, who spent much of his time shooing them away!

The wreck is adorned with pink sea fans and made for great wide-angle shots with Rich’s canon DSLR and new Easydive housing.

In the afternoon, we dived the remains of the Glen Strathallen.

In typical style, Rich and I got distracted by a lost creel that was still catching. He set about freeing the resident spider crab while I filmed. We just can’t help ourselves!