By Founder and President Kurt Lieber
On Sunday, July 12th, our diehard crew of divers headed back out to an area where we had success on our last outing. This is an area where a lobster fisherman advised me to concentrate our efforts, knowing he has lost dozens of traps here in the past.
I was cautious about heading out, because the weather forecast was calling for 3–5-foot waves in the morning and building to 4-6 as evening approached. Indeed, it was a bouncy ride as we made the 10-mile voyage from Channel Islands Harbor in Ventura County, California, to Anacapa Island.
But as we got closer to the island the seas started to calm down and we dropped anchor in relatively calm waters on the back side of East Anacapa Island. We selected a site about 300 yards away from the area where we pulled two traps the weekend before.
Divers this day were Kevin Augarten, Melanie Kemmann, Geoff Walsh, and Mike Wynd. Kim Cardenas stayed onboard and helped me out with all the boat responsibilities.
This was Malanie’s first time out with us as a scuba diver. She had helped as a deckhand and was so taken with what ODA accomplishes that she obtained her rescue diver certification so she could go on these kinds of dives. She had never used a DPV (Dive Propulsion vehicle, underwater – UW – scooter) before, so Kim gave her a quick lesson on the ride over about how to safely use one.
Melanie is ready to splash into the Pacific Ocean and remove hazardous abandoned fishing equipment!
For the first dive, we anchored very close to an area called Seal Beach. All day long we heard the seals’ enthusiastic barks and bellows and got to see them swimming all around the boat.
As the boat crew, Kim and I stayed on the boat watching for the first set of bags to break the surface. We waited and waited. Nothing spotted for almost 45 minutes. Then, finally, we saw a set of our brightly colored ODA float bags about 200 yards in front of us.
Kim got the davit (a crane on the front of the boat) ready to haul the trap(s) out of the water, but as Mike got closer to the boat, he said it was falling apart and we’d be better off just pulling it up by hand on the stern (back of the boat). So, Kim and I grabbed some heavy-duty gloves and hauled the pieces, along with rope and a buoy onto the deck.
As soon as we got all the pieces aboard we carried them up to the front deck to get them out of the way for when the divers got back aboard.
They all climbed out of the water and told tales about what they had seen down there. They were all raving about a huge giant black sea bass that took a liking to them and tagged along for a good part of the dive to see what these strange creatures were up to. They estimated this guy was 6-7 feet long. Whoa, that is a BIG fish. Of course, this only happens when you don’t have a camera with you!
To make sure that didn't happen again, Melanie took along her UW camera on the next dive. This was like ensuring the sea bass would not re-appear…
The divers went to work under the surface...
Thinking that there were more traps to be found here, we didn’t move the boat, but this time the divers searched behind the boat. This time it took approximately 20 minutes before we saw 3 lift bags about 150 yards away.
This time we needed the davit!
At this point the UW visibility was getting really bad, so we cut the dive short and called it a day. We now feel pretty certain that there are no more abandoned traps there and we’ll hit another site next time.
We had a pleasant ride home, as the seas were nothing like the weather service had predicted. We got back to the slip, cleaned up the boat, took a photo of the crew with their “catch of the day,” and headed home around 4pm.
ODA Crew with their "Catch of the Day"!
Nice to have you come out with us Melanie, next time KEEP that camera with you!
We hope there are more "Melanies" out there who are inspired by this conservation work and go get their diving credentials so you can join us in our vital cleanup efforts!
When you're ready, please download our Crew Application and let's clean the ocean together!
