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Does this statistic bother you too?
Every year, more than 800,000 tons of commercial fishing gear is lost in our global oceans.

We don’t like it either. Want to know what we do about it?
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YOU are vital in the fight against marine debris
We have the boats and we know where to find ghost gear and dangerous debris. Your financial support will help us get there!
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Are you ready to “dive in” with ODA?
There are many ways you can help: from right where you are, or you can join us on a boat or beach.
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We are defenders of the ocean
ODA volunteers can be vastly different in age, backgrounds, skillsets, and interests. But we come together for one shared cause: To clean our oceans and make them safer for all life.

Ocean Defenders Alliance

Operating from ship and shore, ODA's all-volunteer boat and dive crews remove abandoned fishing nets, traps, lines, plastic, and other man-made debris threatening ocean wildlife and habitats.

READ MORE

Ocean Defenders Alliance

Operating from ship and shore, ODA's all-volunteer boat and dive crews remove abandoned fishing nets, traps, lines, plastic, and other man-made debris threatening ocean wildlife and habitats.

READ MORE

scuba diver

Island of Hawai'i Scuba Scholarship Program

Announcing the Ocean Defenders Alliance first-ever
Student Scuba Scholarship Program!

ODA is offering a full scholarship for Open Water Scuba Certification to high school students between the ages of 15-18 years, as well as a full scholarship for the Dive Against Debris Certification after their Open Water Certification is completed.  We are offering over a dozen scholarships!

DISCOVER MORE!

Where we make a difference

 

ODA has two main geographical areas of operation. We have boats, divers, and onshore volunteers stationed in Southern California and the Hawaiian islands.

California

California

California has served as our homebase since ODA was founded in 2002. We remove debris of all kinds in the coastal waters and shorelines from San Diego to Ventura County.

Hawaii

Hawai'i

The high-volume of ocean debris in Hawai’i is alarming. Since 2017, we’ve had boats and volunteers on the Big Island and Oahu cleaning debris from beaches and in the water.

You are needed!

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Fuel ODA's boats, and sustain our efforts to clean our oceans.

crew on boat

Dive in with us - on our boats, on shore, and from home.

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You want to know the latest & how to help: sign up now!

By Captain Dave Merrill

Our flagship Mr. Barker’s LegaSea headed out of Oxnard harbor for our usual hunting of abandoned lobster traps on Sunday, July 3rd, 2022.

Volunteer debris removal crew

The legal lobster fishing season had ended March 16th, so there shouldn’t be any active traps. See our last report California Ocean Defenders Free Trapped Animals showing how abandoned traps still catch marine life.

The weather forecast predicted 3-to-5-foot swells with winds increasing to 25 knots by afternoon. Typical Southern California summer conditions.

On board were three divers: Geoff Walsh, Mike Wynd, and new to the crew, Sagi. The deck crew was Jeff Connor, Sue St. Sure, and Merlita, with me, Dave Merrill handling the captain’s duties.

 Divers and RIB driver

Just outside Oxnard harbor, we scanned the bottom for the Little Joe wreck but couldn’t find anything according to the GPS coordinates that had been given to us. So off we went to the Kopco Star, a wreck we had dived previously.

The Kopco Star was a kelp harvester built at Terminal Island (San Pedro) in 1952 and measured 51.6’ long, 27.3 in the beam, 4.8 in-depth, and powered by four diesel engines with a rating of 900 horsepower. It was owned by the Kopco Star Company of Los Angeles and was a kelpcutter that operated out of the Kopco kelp processing facility in Pt. Hueneme (Ventura County) harvesting kelp from Point Hueneme to Point Conception. On Tuesday, October 1, 1963, at around 10:00 pm the Kopco Star listed to port shortly after taking on a heavy load of kelp. It sunk about six miles offshore from Pt. Hueneme.

Back to present day!

sea grape exampleOur divers had a very nice dive on the Kopco Star for the first and only dive. Visibility was limited in part due to so many salp (also known as sea grapes), plus some small jellyfish. On the wreck there was generally 20–25-foot visibility. More sea life there than has been seen before, with really big (four-foot-plus) bass. The Kopco Star is a very pretty wreck.

Mike, on his rebreather dived first as his gear allows him more time underwater, ran a line to the wreck which Geoff and Sagi followed when they entered the water.

ODA Divers in water

Mike had already located an abandoned lobster trap!

Geoff with whale-entangling trap lineSo, he rigged the trap up a lift bag, and when Geoff and Sagi got there, Geoff filled the bag with air, added another lift bag for good measure (i.e., extra pull), and shot it to the surface.

We looked around for a few more minutes but that was the only trap in the area.

Sagi and Geoff also picked up some long trap line (80ish feet) which Mike had cut. This is the type of line that’s so dangerous to passing whales.

The divers then headed to the surface where the conditions by then were a bit on the rough side, but it was by far the best dive we've had in several outings. The divers agreed one dive would have to do as the swell was building, and wind increasing even further.

Merlita with recovered trapSue and Jeff retrieved the trap with the RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) and had it on deck by the time Geoff and Sagi surfaced.

Mike surfaced not too much later, and with 3 moderately seasick deck crew, we headed back to port. We dropped off the trap and line at a fisherman’s dock. Then we headed back to the dock to wash things up.

Note from Captain Kurt: Thank you to Captain Dave and the So Cal Crew for keeping things going the minute the seas would allow as they’ve been so rough all spring and early summer. Our Hawai’i crews are busy with multiple outings, so stay tuned for those reports soon!

ODA's Articles

Read about ODA's actions and events in California, Hawaii, and elsewhere.

Whale Season Celebration Cleanup on the Big Island

We’re always excited to partner with other local environmental groups. See what we accomplished together…

Crew Chronicles - Bo Pardau - Hawai'i

We are so fortunate to have Bo on our team (and wife, Jamie, too)! His amazing photographs are beautiful and capture the ocean defenders doing their good work...

ODA Volunteers Clean Wetlands That Provide Wintering Habitat for Thousands of Birds

We’ve adopted this 965-acre refuge and are committed to monthly cleanups to make it a safer place for the wildlife that call it home…

Ventura Traps Are Hauled Away by ODA

Thanks to someone who cares about ocean life – Marlene – four wildlife-entrapping lobster traps are out of harm’s way…

Ocean Defenders’ Regular Removal of Debris Keeps Oahu Waters Safe for the Ecosystem

ODA-Hawaii in Oahu is committed to monthly cleanups with our dive boat partner Aaron’s Dive Shop and it’s paying off…

Report Ocean Debris

If you see ocean debris please let us know right away! Visit our Debris Report page.