By ODA Hawai’i Island Chapter Leader Sarah Milisen

Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) is putting our new boat to good use with back-to-back recon missions! 

On June 12th, I got a call from DOBOR (Department of Boating and Ocean Recreation) about a report of a net close to shore just north of Honokohau Harbor at about 2pm. I'd just gotten home from my full-time job, but in less than an hour I had a couple volunteers set to meet me at boat ramp in the harbor. 

Here's the reason we receive calls from DOBOR: We have a rapid response equipment -- a truck, trailer, and boat -- that allow us to go out to see a a moment's notice.

My employer Kona Honu Divers (KHD) had a long-range boat offshore, pulling in small debris in a current line (there has been SO MUCH debris coming in on current lines these last 2 weeks), so I called Captain Emily on the KHD boat, who redirected their boat to start search patterns at the last known location for the net.

As I was driving to the harbor, 2 of our friends spotted us and asked if they could come along. Of course!!! So, I added two more volunteers. 

Our crew: Milo Giorgio, Jeff and Sarah Milisen, Tony White, with Liz and Alex rounding out the team.

We put the boat in the water and as we were heading out to sea, we communicated with Capt. Emily. She reported that they couldn’t find any trace. So, they returned to the harbor. 

We continued on our way and estimated where the currents might take the net. Milo and Jeff were up on the top bridge scanning for a trace. But we found nothing…

Feeling like failures, we returned to wash down the boat, only to hear that another boat pulled in a smaller net, after they freed a live turtle from it!!! These nets are HUGE risks to wildlife!!!! One of the volunteers was a Body Glove employee out for fun that day – and was wearing his ODA shirt! HURRAY for our community! 

I parked the boat overnight at the harbor (with permission) as we were planning on launching the boat the next morning for a long-range scouting mission. 

Second Outing

The next morning, with new volunteers, we loaded the boat with tanks and gear and headed south – on a wonderfully calm day.

Today’s crew: Juan Chacin, Jeff and Sarah Milisen, Meghan Murray, Tony Sepanski and Tony White.

This weekend was the Tokunaga Ulua shoreline fishing competition – and Deep Step was our goal - but I didn't think that would happen due to fishermen most likely being there, so we changed game plans and scouted fishing points where fishermen were camped out. We marked each site on our GPS so we could have a look at a later date as a possible cleanup site.  Then continued south until we found a known fishing point without fishers on it. 

We could see the white pole holders jammed into the rocks at our first diving site but no active fishing going on. Our divers got in and did a drift dive around the point, assessing and collecting debris. Tony White brought his DPV to scout further offshore, while Meghan, Juan, Jeff, and Tony Sepanski went into shallow waters to look for line and lead – and dealt with some serious surge as some big swell sets came in. I manned the helm for their first dive, and Jeff came back up with a bottle and quite a bit of line - the other divers were fairly empty-handed. 

Offshore on our way back home, we found bits of debris in the current line – a bucket, bait box, a bowl, a plastic bin, bottles, etc. Then we headed into Kailua Bay (out of the swell) to pull a tire or two. 

Meghan and Juan dove in and pulled up ropes, carpets, big chunks of plastic fenders, clothes, and hose material from their dives

While the 2 Tony’s swam furiously until they found a tire, dug it out, and lift-bagged it to the surface. 

The Tonys, apparently, love to get extra dirty, so once the tire was pulled aboard, Tony S got to business scooping mud out of the tire and tossing all that muck back into the ocean! Thanks Tony! 

ODA Crew with Their "Catch of the Day"

We motored back home and all together collected about 45 pounds of debris, plus the 60-pound tire, and about 300 feet of line that Jeff collected. 

While we never did find that net, we will be on the lookout.

WAY TO GO TEAM!!!