By Kay Cooper, ODA North Hawai’i Island Volunteer Coordinator

What truly amazing, and dedicated volunteers ODA has!

We had 19 volunteers come out to the Northern part of Hawai’i Island, Kawaihae's South Harbor, on Sunday, April 20th…EASTER Sunday! Talk about dedication!

This is the third time we have done a cleanup in this harbor, the last one having been more than two years ago, and each time we return, we continue to pull many things out of our waters. Organization of harbor cleanups is a very important including a thorough process as these are active boat areas with people frequently entering and leaving the ramps where our ocean cleanup scuba divers also enter and exit the water. 

During the last cleanup that took place here, a small team of volunteer divers discovered a very large and very heavy sail/canvass material that had thick, metal wire lines all throughout it. Large parts of it were buried in sand and difficult to lift. Unfortunately, they had to leave this behind with the intent of returning to finish the job. This time we did it!

The safety and operations briefing at the harbor began around 9:30am after divers picked up their free, donated scuba tank from our partner Kohala Divers’ dive shop.

Our volunteers this day were: Max Brodheim, Juan Chacin, Kay, Carl and Josh Cooper, Tim Ewing, Todd Hacket, Jack Mead, Chad Merrill, Jeff and Sarah Milisen, John Moore, Adrain Murphy, Neng Sutherland, Brian Sward, Don Tremel, Chris and Don Wellert, and Laurel Westbrook-Trammell! 

We broke up into three separate teams to tackle the harbor this time; one team of three divers, led by Jeff Milisen, got a boat ride from two of our new volunteers Dan and Chris Wellert, over to the location of the canvass at the far end of the harbor. Once at the location, they dropped in and immediately descended to begin work on lifting the canvass off the bottom, clearing the sand off the top, and attaching lift bags to it to bring it to the surface. Once the sail was at the surface, it was attached to the boat and taken back to the boat ramp where it was then attached to the truck of our regular volunteer, Josh Cooper. This canvass was so heavy that it had to be dragged out by the truck. Our volunteers prevailed and the canvass is now removed. The estimated total weight was around 250 pounds, and total length was an estimated 30 feet!

Our second team of eight divers broke up into a few smaller buddy teams and began to clean on the north end of the harbor where there were no boat slips. They worked along the break wall making their way around toward the location of the canvass, where they eventually came across several buried tires and large heavy lines (this will be tackled on our next cleanup here).

This team pulled up many things including a boat rudder, aluminum cans, plastic bottles, a boat anchor, glass bottles, fishing line, lots of rope and PVC pipes, plastic containers, large metal chains, and a couple masks with snorkels.

Our third team of two divers began their dive on the south end of the harbor under the boat slips and the dock. This area has not been cleaned before and was much needed. Our divers on this side brough up many objects including a five-foot step ladder, a folding camp chair, a car jack, several long PVC pipes, rugs, clothing, a couple boat anchors, an old cell phone, a plastic roofing panel, a cover to something on a boat, and heavy line. 

Hawai’i Island ODA Volunteer and Chapter Leader Sarah Milisen was on site taking photos of the event and offering shore support when needed. I was also helping shore support to the divers under the boat slips, ready with a wheelbarrow to haul out large, heavy loads, take items from divers from the water onto the dock, and exchange full rubbish back for new ones. Josh Cooper (my husband) and Carl Cooper (our son) were also running around as shore support offering assistance to the drivers and driving the truck to haul out the canvass and block one side of the boat ramp for divers to enter and exit the water. 

The cleanup went on for a little over an hour and was a huge success! A big appreciation goes out to all our ODA volunteers and also to our new volunteers, Dan and Chris Wellert, who donated their time and their boat to help with this cleanup and the large undertaking of the canvass that really needed to come out of the harbor. Without these guys, it truly would have been a challenge to complete.

The total estimated weight of everything pulled out of the harbor was around 500 pounds! WOW! Great work everyone and thank you so much for spending your Easter Sunday with ODA (and of course the sea critters that were watching us work). We truly could not do what we do without all of you and our wonderful ODA supporters! Please look for our next cleanups on our website or reach out to the coordinators in your area for more information about future cleanups.

Check out more about the good work of ODA Hawai'i!