Reported by Volunteer Marjorie England
Editor’s Note: Marjorie and her husband Mark England are dedicated regulars at ODA-Hawai’i! We’re fortunate to have them on our team and appreciate their enthusiasm for clean oceans.
This outing on Saturday, October 16th was a little different than our typical debris-removal expeditions with Island Divers Hawaii (ODA’s partner on Oahu). First of all, we didn’t have our usual dive team leaders / coordinators Ken Staples and Glenn Roberts. You were both missed!
Second, we weren’t on the boat Sea Fox, but rather we boarded the Sea Hound to get to our dive site.
Third, we had a smaller crew than usual, but they were just as passionate as always about cleaning Oahu’s coastal waters!
On this day, the seas gave us quite a ride. The surge and currents were very active but our divers are always well-trained and experienced and handled the conditions like pros!
Our destination was our regularly visted site, China Walls. It’s always a difficult spot to get to from the water because there’s so much wave action hitting the cliffs. Perfect ocean days don’t happen often at CW! But it is also a place where the fisherman love to fish and there is never a lack of lost fishing line.
Be sure to check out the photo gallery below to see more great underwater photos!
Today our crew consisted of:
- Captain of the Sea Hound Tim Hollandsworth
- IDH Dive Master Marlena Neal
Divers, in order by first name:
- Crystal Gray
- Dan Okamura
- Ed Sisino, bucket master
- Lucas Kaplan
- Mark England
- Marjorie Zensen
- Michael Del Pra
- Ron Ward, 1st timer – welcome!
- Victoria Cox
- Wayland Kwock, 1st timer – glad to have you!
We were able to remove 15 pounds of lead (toxic) fishing weights.
In our "Catch of the Day" photo, you'll see tangled bundles of monofilament (entangling!) fishing line – when stretched out this is approximately 500 feet. We also found an odd collection of other items: umbrella, golf ball, and a ladle.
No matter how much debris we’re able to pull on any given outing, we are happy if what we remove saves one or two turtles, a ray, monk seal, or shark. To us, that’s a good day!
Check out our ODA-Hawaii page to learn more about what we do to protect the waters of these beautiful islands!
