A local diver who has dedicated himself to helping clean debris out of the province’s harbours is calling attention to the effect the litter is having on marine life.

Shawn Bath is the founder of the Clean Harbour Initiative.

He took to Facebook on Sunday after he heard about an adult Orca that became entangled in an active fishing net off of Triton in Notre Dame Bay and died.

He decided to go take a few pictures of what had happened to raise awareness about the issue.

Bath says because this was an active net, the whale’s carcass was discovered but, had it been a ghost net, chances are we would never have known.

During a three-day initiative in the Gulf of St. Lawrence this past summer, over nine kilometres of ghost fishing gear was removed by DFO.

He says if a whale can get caught and die in an active fishing net, imagine how many are getting caught in ghost nets. He says we need to get government and harvesters involved to help drag up some of the nets.