By Founder and President Kurt Lieber

On Sunday, July 5th, we headed out from our slip in San Pedro, CA and motored eastward towards Long Beach.  The skies were really overcast, but I couldn't tell if it was the residuals from the 4th of July fireworks or from actual cloud cover.

We dropped anchor near the far east end of a breakwall that extends from San Pedro to Long Beach--a seven-mile stretch! Jeff Larson and Al Laubenstein volunteered to be our divers on this day, and they took two dives along the wall, pulling up a variety of debris along the way.

Thanks to our DPVs (diver propulsion vehicles), Jeff and Al searched over a mile of underwater habitat.  Rex Levi and Adam Fram followed them around in our small boat and picked up the various lift bags as they came to the surface: a lobster trap (hoop net style), a fishing pole, spear guns, trap remnants, an assortment of different lines, as well as 5 anchors! In all we removed about 200 pounds of debris, and roughly 300 feet of line, most of which was made out of natural fibers, but some was polypropylene.

The LegaSea ran great, and our new navigation system is working well! We've had to send the unit back three times, but in this case the third time was the charm. Troubles no more!  It is amazing, and refreshing, how much more we can now "see" of the underwater terrain we are constantly patrolling as we look for dangerous manmade debris that shouldn't be in the ocean.

So, look out debris! ODA is coming after you!

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