The Army devoted to cleaning Pembrokeshire’s seabed
When David Kennard made his first deep sea dive off the coast of Pembrokeshire way back in the late 1990s, little did he think the waters of Pembrokeshire would become an integral part of his life.
David is the founder member of Neptune’s Army of Rubbish Cleaner (NARC) which, for the past 25 years, has scoured the county's seabeds removing vast quantities of discarded items. These include cars, washing machines, supermarket trolleys and thousands of metres of rope as well as the highly damaging monofilament fishing line.
“Like a lot of good things, the idea was put to me over a pint of beer when I was playing rugby for Llangwm,” David Kennard told Pure West Radio.
“Somebody asked me what I knew about a group of divers who’d been doing a cleanup at Hobbs Point, and the idea prompted me to set up a group of my own to tackle the problem hands on.
“I’d already been doing beach cleans for about five years, and being a scuba diver you become aware of some of the unnatural things that lie on the ocean seabed.”
David and his fellow NARC divers quickly realised that the Pembrokeshire seabed can often become a final a resting place for items which can be potentially hazardous to the sea life around them.
“One of the first sites we visited was Hobbs Point,” he explained.
“And this was when we found a car that had been abandoned underwater and on another occasion we were attempting to remove the drum of a washing machine with lifting bags that are similar in design to balloons with straps and clips attached which we then fill with air to remove the item from the seabed. As we began lifting it, a giant conger eel swam out of the washing drum directly towards us.
“On another occasion the council supplied us with a skip, but our dive produced so many retrieved items, they had to un-weld the front of the skip in order to pull everything out.”
Another regular site visited by NARC are the waters around Stackpole Quay.
“This was actually the very first site we visited, back in April 2005, which resulted in us retrieving 630 fishing weights that equated 72 kilos of lead. But it isn’t the lead that’s so much of a problem as the monofilament line that takes around 600 years to biodegrade.” NARC also dive at popular angling sites such as Martins Haven, Stackpole Quay and Fishguard breakwater, and regularly liaise with other divers who may have spotted anything amiss on the seabed.
“Possibly one of my chief concerns as a diver is the amount of commercial fishing equipment that we regularly remove as well as rope” continued David. "During a recent dive we retrieved 450 metres of rope which is an incredibly large amount.”
Another problem which local divers have to overcome is the county’s incredible tidal range.
“The tidal range in Pembrokeshire is one of the largest in the UK, so obviously this all has to be factored in when planning our dives.
“And it goes without saying that diving can always be a hazard - what we’re doing is totally unnatural, and all we have to rely on is our equipment.”
NARC limits their dives to ten people, each of whom must have suitable qualifications and be experienced deep sea divers.
“We tend to use two boats, but we can’t fill them completely with volunteers as we need storage space for our equipment as well as all the objects we retrieve.
“But the people who join us are all diving with a very strong purpose.
“I've been diving around Pembrokeshire for nearly 25 years and it’s given me so very much back.
“And I suppose this is why diving with NARC means so much to me - it’s now giving me the opportunity to give something back.”
To hear the interview in full, head over to our Facebook page.
The Army devoted to cleaning Pembrokeshire’s seabed
When David Kennard made his first deep sea dive off the coast of Pembrokeshire way back in the late 1990s, little did he think the waters of Pembrokeshire would become an integral part of his life.
David is the founder member of Neptune’s Army of Rubbish Cleaner (NARC) which, for the past 25 years, has scoured the county's seabeds removing vast quantities of discarded items. These include cars, washing machines, supermarket trolleys and thousands of metres of rope as well as the highly damaging monofilament fishing line.
“Like a lot of good things, the idea was put to me over a pint of beer when I was playing rugby for Llangwm,” David Kennard told Pure West Radio.
“Somebody asked me what I knew about a group of divers who’d been doing a cleanup at Hobbs Point, and the idea prompted me to set up a group of my own to tackle the problem hands on.
“I’d already been doing beach cleans for about five years, and being a scuba diver you become aware of some of the unnatural things that lie on the ocean seabed.”
David and his fellow NARC divers quickly realised that the Pembrokeshire seabed can often become a final a resting place for items which can be potentially hazardous to the sea life around them.
“One of the first sites we visited was Hobbs Point,” he explained.
“And this was when we found a car that had been abandoned underwater and on another occasion we were attempting to remove the drum of a washing machine with lifting bags that are similar in design to balloons with straps and clips attached which we then fill with air to remove the item from the seabed. As we began lifting it, a giant conger eel swam out of the washing drum directly towards us.
“On another occasion the council supplied us with a skip, but our dive produced so many retrieved items, they had to un-weld the front of the skip in order to pull everything out.”
Another regular site visited by NARC are the waters around Stackpole Quay.
“This was actually the very first site we visited, back in April 2005, which resulted in us retrieving 630 fishing weights that equated 72 kilos of lead. But it isn’t the lead that’s so much of a problem as the monofilament line that takes around 600 years to biodegrade.”
NARC also dive at popular angling sites such as Martins Haven, Stackpole Quay and Fishguard breakwater, and regularly liaise with other divers who may have spotted anything amiss on the seabed.
“Possibly one of my chief concerns as a diver is the amount of commercial fishing equipment that we regularly remove as well as rope” continued David. "During a recent dive we retrieved 450 metres of rope which is an incredibly large amount.”
Another problem which local divers have to overcome is the county’s incredible tidal range.
“The tidal range in Pembrokeshire is one of the largest in the UK, so obviously this all has to be factored in when planning our dives.
“And it goes without saying that diving can always be a hazard - what we’re doing is totally unnatural, and all we have to rely on is our equipment.”
NARC limits their dives to ten people, each of whom must have suitable qualifications and be experienced deep sea divers.
“We tend to use two boats, but we can’t fill them completely with volunteers as we need storage space for our equipment as well as all the objects we retrieve.
“But the people who join us are all diving with a very strong purpose.
“I've been diving around Pembrokeshire for nearly 25 years and it’s given me so very much back.
“And I suppose this is why diving with NARC means so much to me - it’s now giving me the opportunity to give something back.”
To hear the interview in full, head over to our Facebook page.