By ODA Dive Team Coordinator, Dive Master, and Advisory Board Member Gary Liebmann
The weather was looking great on Sunday February 16th as the Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) Crew began preparing for a cleanup on Oahu’s southeast shoreline.
All our volunteers met up at our boat partner Island Divers’ shop at approximately 1:30 pm where I gave a quick dive brief to the newest members while the boat was preparing for departure.
The list of 13 volunteer divers includes: Henry Bennett, Michael Dal Pra, James Delecki, Crystal Gray, Jim Hayden, Cecilie Kejser, Andrew Leighton, Chad Schmidt, Claude Sidi, Justin Silva, Cameron Yadsley, Bailey Young, and me (Gary).
Let’s not forget our boat crew members, Temple Liebmann, who always helps keep our divers safe and takes all the topside photos, and Island Divers’ amazing Captain Matt Negaard!
After the dive briefing, we all loaded aboard the Sea Fox and made our way out of the Hawai’i Kai Marina into Maunalua Bay. The weather was fair so we decided to try to make it to our adopted debris cleanup site called Fish Camp this time as we may not have many more opportunities to dive at this location this season.
When we arrived, there were several active fishermen on the point, and we didn’t want to disturb them, so we asked Captain Matt to drop us off a hundred yards southeast of the point at Fish Camp.
We have never explored this far off the regular site so we figured it would be worth investigating.
As Captain Matt expertly positioned us off for the drop, all 13 divers made their way down to the site at about 70 feet. Surprisingly when we arrived there was not as much rubbish as I would have expected.
We all scavenged as best as we could but after about 30 minutes, and with air supplies running short, I made the call to end the dive.
We brought three buckets down with us which were somewhat full of line but not so much as far as lead so didn’t require much in the way of lift capacity to surface them.
After all our divers made it safely back aboard the Sea Fox, we made our way back to the boat slip at Island Divers and offloaded all the gear and rubbish.
In the end we managed to collect 55 pounds of rubbish including approximately 200 yards of fishing line off the reef.
While this wasn’t our most successful trip everyone expressed how much fun they had and that they couldn’t wait for the next cleanup. It’s nice to see some fresh faces and enthusiastic new ODA volunteers!
Of course, after the cleanup we all headed over to Kona Brewing Company to talk big fish stories and enjoy some pupus and sprits!
Be sure to visit our Hawai'i page to check out all of our dive boat operators, many debris site locations, and great photos.
