By Founder and President Kurt Lieber
My recent trip to Hawai’i was filled with great camaraderie and successful cleanups. I was thrilled that we put an exclamation point on what had already been an excellent series of cleanup when a host of volunteers turned out once again to jump in the waters of the windward side of Oahu, at a place known as Kaneohe Bay.
I want to encourage you to check out ALL the pictures in the photo gallery below of our hard-working ocean cleanup volunteers. You'll have almost as much fun as they did and you'll feel the satisfaction of a job well done!
On Sunday, February 25th, 35 people eagerly arrived in the early morning hours to help remove whatever debris we could from the waters surrounding He’eia Pier. This was the 8th time we’ve done a cleanup here, and with 404 tires already hauled from our prior efforts, we were primed to finish what we started. At least we hoped that this would be the last time…
People started showing up around 8am, and at 9am Glenn and I gave a briefing on how things would transpire for the next two hours. Glenn talked with the divers and snorkelers about how best to locate and remove the large items, like tires. I talked with the Pier Support Team about how to safely and quickly remove the tires once the divers had secured the haul-out lines to the tires.
Dedicated ODA volunteers Glenn Roberts, Anke Roberts, Gary Liebmann, Temple Liebmann, have been working with me on the planning and logistics for a couple of months prior to the event to make sure we had enough volunteers to pull off another successful event. All that behind the scenes work really paid off!
Three people from our California operations were with me on this trip.
California Crew left to right: Kim Cardenas, Kurt, & newlyweds Pete and Hannah Markel
Kim Cardenas – who has been our California Diver of the Year for the last four years running – donned her wetsuit to lend a hand to the dive team. She turned out to be an invaluable asset, as she made some recommendations about how to streamline the dive operations.
Our crack social media team Hannah and Pete Markel were there to film the day’s happenings and did several video interviews with our top Hawai’i volunteers. You’ll be seeing the results of those shoots in our Crew Chronicles series in the next several months.
By 9:15am everyone was ready to go, and the divers started to make the 8-foot plunge from the pier to the water.
Volunteers Crystal Gray and Michael Del Pra got in the water early so Crystal could take underwater images of what the bottom looked like before all the activities started and the water visibility would be reduced to near zero. I think you’ll agree, she came away with some stark images!
Check it out - towards the end, you'll get a birdseye view of what it's like to be on the snorkle team -- working to get those heavy tires onto the exit ramp!
Before the divers got in the water, several dive flags were put into position to alert boaters to steer clear of the area. The flag lets them know that there were divers in the immediate area.
Within five minutes of the first divers descending, we saw our bright orange lift bags break the surface.
When the divers locate heavy debris, they attach a lift bag to the item and inflate it, causing the balloon to pull/float the debris to the surface for removal. Members of the snorkel brigade quickly grabbed onto the bag with one hand and with the other hand activated their scooter (Diver Propulsion Vehicle) that would propel them over to the specially built “tire removal ramp” attached to the pier.
For the next two hours, we pulled up one after another car and truck tires. This is where the dirty work comes in. Most of the tire wells were filled with mud. The majority of them also had hundreds of feet of fishing lines and hooks mixed in with the mud. The deck crew did their best to remove all that gunk. In that mess we also found and released several live crabs, shrimp, and sea slugs.
Our on-pier volunteers lined up to play tug-o-war with the tires. Thankfully, the cleanup team won!
During all this mayhem, a reporter showed up from one of the local TV stations. His name is Anthony Hamilton with Hawai’i News Now (HNN), it was nice to see him out on a Sunday covering the event once again. He’s covered at least four of these events. We are grateful to get the news out about the plight of our oceans and how people can help.
Crewmembers get nterviewed by Anthony Hamilton with Hawai’i News Now (HNN)
Hannah and Pete interview Dan-o for ODA's Crew Chronicles.We also had a student from the University of Hawai’i attend. She was creating a short video for one of her environmental classes. Hope you get an “A!”
Kurt with U of H student. We love it when young folks get involved!
Every one got mud on them!
Ricky, I think we’re going to have to get you a new shirt! What a happy mess!!
By 11 o’clock, the divers had drained their tanks of compressed air, and we started the arduous task of removing as much gunk as we could from the tires.You can tell how heavy the tires are because it takes so many people to pull them up. Wet mud weighs a lot!
After that we posed for a few pictures to document the haul. That's always a joyful photo of the gang.
Then came the arduous task of rolling all the tires to the disposal truck, loading them in, and stacking them.
To be good stewards, we washed all the mud off the surface of the pier... and some of the deck crew, too!
In all we removed 39 tires, 2,000 feet of fishing line, 50 fishing hooks and lures, as well as 50 pounds of other debris.
There were 35 people with hearts for the ocean who volunteered their Sunday to make the waters of Oahu a little safer for the animals that call this place home…
Volunteers for this epic day were: Henry Bennett, Jennifer Booker, Kim Cardenas, Ellie Cory, Sarah Cutsinger, Michael Dal Pra, Ray Goody, Crystal Gray, Cholynne and Ricky Hayes, Samantha Heath, Julia Hunckler, Gary and Temple Liebmann, David Marcelli, Hannah and Pete Markel, Bill Metzler, Dan Okamura, Anke and Glenn Roberts, Megan Scott, Chad Smith, Kay Smullen, Jordan Spalding, Myra Torres, Mahea Ueshiro, Baily Yound and Rose Zhang.
There are so many people to thank, if I miss you in this list, please contact me and we’ll update the article!
Glenn, Anke, Gary, and Temple for putting in the hours of work in the preceding months to have all the volunteers and gear show up at the same time.
Glenn and Anke Roberts
Gary and Temple LiebermannTanya Borabora, the He’eia Small Boat Harbor Master, for notifying all the boaters of the cleanup beforehand and for giving us access to the site for the morning.
Kanai’s Rolloff for donating the use of their truck to haul all the tires to the other side of the island where the electric company, H-Power, took in all of the tires and waived the disposal fee.
I have to say that Kanai’s Rolloff went the extra mile this time. The H-Power facility was shut down for several days, and Kanai and his crew had to store those tires at their facility for three extra days before they could take them to H-power.
That means they had to load and unload all those tires TWICE! Thanks just can’t cover the gratitude we all have for what you had to go through. Mahalo Nui.
Alison Keith did her usual stellar job of getting all the paperwork in order with H-Power to ensure that when Kanai’i Rolloff showed up with all the tires that they weren’t required to pay any dump fees.
Shout out to Anke and Temple, as well, for taking all these fun topside pictures! All the images from the water were taken by Crystal Gray.
As we were packing up all the gear, tee shirts, and tents that we had brought, a local fisherman named Kimo sought me out. We talked for several minutes about all the stuff he had seen us haul up. He said he’s watched us work for a couple of years and thanked us profusely for getting all the tires and fishing lines out.
My friend, if you are reading this, let’s try to figure out how we can rig this fishing gear, so people don’t lose as much lead and line. It’ll be a win for everyone throughout the Hawaiian Islands!
If you live in Oahu or are an ODA supporter passing through, please reach out to us to join in a future cleanup. It’d be fun to have you, and I guarantee you’ll love our upbeat volunteers and feel great about what you accomplish together!
