Editor's note: Be sure to check out the photo gallery below to see Glenn in action with fellow conservationists at ODA!

Every month, we shine the spotlight on another phenomenal volunteer. This month we’re featuring Glenn Roberts who is a dive master, ODA’s Oahu Dive Team Leader, and a member of the ODA Advisory Board.

Check out this cool photo - enlarge by clicking on it! This is Glenn and fellow diver Rose Zhang on the ledge at Fish Camp with two honus (Hawaiian green sea turtles) in the upper left.

ODA Founder and President Kurt Lieber shared this about Glenn, “Glenn has been volunteering with ODA since February 2018, which is not long after we first started going out on underwater cleanups around Oahu. He's an avid scuba diver and has been organizing and leading our boat and beach dives for about the last four years. He's been a great asset to our efforts to remove as much toxic debris as humanly possible and do it safely. On top of all that he's a GREAT guy to spend time with!”

Glenn - in the bright blue ODA shirt and ODA cap!

Everyone at ODA agrees that Glenn is an indispensable member of our ODA Family! We all appreciate his big smile, infectious love of the oceans, and commitment to cleaning our environment.

Please enjoy our Q&A interview with Glenn

Q.  What drew your attention to the ocean and when?

A.  I’ve lived in Hawai’i for the past 16 years and dive most weekends. Most of the dives are on the south shore of Oahu near where I live. The lava formations and coral reefs are amazing but over the years I’ve noticed a decline in healthy corals and a big decrease in fish populations. Besides diver pressure, abandoned nets and fishing gear are a big part of the problem. That’s why I started volunteering with ODA in 2017.

Q.  What are your favorite ODA expeditions?

A.  My favorite ODA cleanup site is called Fish Camp which is at the bottom of a cliff just around the corner from Hanauma Bay. The dive site is right below fishing shelters and there’s a ton of fishing debris on a ledge at 45 feet. We usually have big waves crashing against the cliff, but Captain John is awesome and backs us right up to the ledge where we enter the water and drop immediately. We don’t make it out there every month but when we do, we all leave with a great sense of accomplishment.  

Q.  Any funny stories to share?

A.  We were doing a cleanup at Spitting Cave and one of the buckets was REALLY full, probably 150 pounds of lead and other debris. It required two ODA lift bags to get it back to the boat. It was one of our original buckets, old and brittle. When the boat crew tried to haul it up onto the boat it hit the swim platform and basically exploded. The plastic pieces and all the lead sunk to the bottom at 85 feet. We marked the spot with GPS and made it back there a few months later. I thought we had a slim chance of finding the scattered debris on the bottom, but the recovery team dropped right on top of it. What a rush finding that needle in a haystack and being able to pick up all the pieces!

An ODA diver retrieves the broken bucket!

Q.  Why do you like volunteering with ODA?

A.  We have a pretty small core group that never misses an outing. We know each other really well and look out for each other during the dives. Our cleanup dives give the whole team a feeling of shared accomplishment. I can’t imagine a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Glenn and the crew even kept cleaning through the pandemic!

Q.  Your wife Anke also volunteers. Can you talk about the positives of volunteering together? Did one or the other start first with ODA or did you both “dive in” at the same time?

A.  My wife Anke has been volunteering with ODA about as long as I have. She is a key player helping to organize shore events like He’eia Pier, Magic Island, and Waiahole Beachpark. She does a lot of work designing and sourcing ODA Hawai’i gear, making sure everyone signs in and operates safely at shore events, and especially, taking topside photos which is her real passion.

Q.  Aside from diving with ODA, where else do you like to dive and why?

A.  Maui has some of my favorite dive sites, especially the backside of Molokini Crater which drops to over 400 feet. You will always see big sharks and other creatures you won't see on shallow reefs.

ODA would like to thank Glenn for his generosity of time, efforts, and expertise as he invests with us in making a debris-free sea!

After you check out the photo gallery below, be sure to check out his Advisory Board Member page…