By ODA Dive Team Coordinator, Dive Master, and Advisory Board Member Gary Liebmann
Friday November 29th was an exciting day for the scuba divers aboard the Island Divers boat, the Sea Fox!
This was supposed to be just an ordinary three-tank charter – not an Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) ocean debris cleanup outing – leaving Hawai’i Kai Marina at approximately 7am and heading out into Maunaloa Bay to explore a couple of the wrecks the bay has to offer.
The Sea Fox had 12 divers aboard on this morning to include Captain Matt Negaard, dive shop owner Brady Thomas and one of ODA’s seasoned volunteers and dive master David Marcelli.
The divers had just come up from the second dive of the day, the Upside Down LCU wreck. This wreck sits at about 90 feet and is in the middle of Maunaloe Bay.
As the divers all boarded the Sea Fox and began their journey to the next dive site at approximately 11am. That’s when Captain Negaard noticed something floating in the middle of the bay.
The Sea Fox wasted no time and made way over to the suspicious object floating in the water.
As the boat approached, they noticed it was a large ghost net. The captain and the crew worked quickly to haul the net aboard the Sea Fox, ensuring that this net was not going to be responsible for damaging the sensitive marine ecosystem that we’re all lucky enough to enjoy.
The Island Divers crew went on to successfully complete the third dive of the day and then made their way back to the marina at around 1:30 in the afternoon.
Once back, ODA volunteer David Marcelli sent me a message explaining what was found in the bay that morning and asked if I could help to inspect and dispose of it.
On Saturday morning November 30th I went down to Island Divers to look at this net. It measured approximately 25 feet and weighed over 200 pounds! It took two of us to drag it to my pickup truck so I could properly dispose of it.
It was another successful day removing debris from our oceans. Even though this was not a sanctioned Ocean Defenders Alliance clean up I am still grateful and proud of our volunteers and partners doing their part to keep the waters of Hawai’i clean and safe for all to enjoy!
Check out our ODA Hawai'i page to see our list of Dive Boat Partners and Adopted Debris Sites! We are BUSY there!
