Coastal Cleanup Take 2

My friend McGill with a bag full of cans, bottles and plastic.

The typhoons have come and gone and the seas around the north coast have finally cleared up enough for safe diving.  The Water temperatures have dropped considerably since I was last diving, but it’s still tolerable.  This was our rescheduled Coastal Cleanup day since the first one was delayed for poor weather.  Our plan was to go out and pick up the small debris on the first dive and then go back for the bigger stuff on the second dive.

This basket of garbage was from our first dive.  It felt really good to go out there and make a difference in the underwater habitats of some small sea creatures.  Unfortunately we didn’t even make a dent in the amount of garbage we saw littering the bottom.

This was from our second haul.  We aimed at getting the bigger stuff on our second dive, mostly abandoned fishing nets.  We spent almost the entire second dive cutting fishing nets away from coral.   We even managed to recover a plastic lawn chair.

Coastal Cleanup Sept. 15

Diving has brought a new level of awareness to me regarding the amount of garbage I have seen in beautiful settings underwater.  There’s no better day to go out and do something about it than being part of the International Coastal Cleanup this weekend.  While many comb the beaches there will be another group combing the sea floor. 

According to the Ocean Conservancy volunteers have cleaned up more than 170,000 miles of coast line and picked up more than 100 million pounds of trash.   Here’s a link to see where the closest cleanup is to you. 

For all my stateside friends: Cleanup efforts in the US

For the rest of you: Cleanup efforts Internationally