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

Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) and our volunteer ocean advocates met to do the first of its kind cleanup at Māhukona State Park on the Big Island of Hawaii in Northern Kohala on Sunday, August 17.

This State Park is a local favorite and a very popular tourist spot. The park holds strong, significant value and meaning to most of the local community on this Island as a lot of them have been swimming here for years, since they were children, and have fond memories of their parents and grandparents coming here as well! Known for its beautiful, shallow reefs, sand channels, a large variety of marine life, and some long-time sunken treasures, such as a ship anchor and chain (which is now part of the beautiful reef ecosystem), Mahu Kona brings tourists, swimmers, and divers into the waters daily. 

Having dove this location many times myself, I have been seeing tires scattered throughout the sandy bottom along with other debris for years. Many of my friends and co-workers dive this location regularly and report the tires and rubbish to me as well.

ODA is committed to removing tires wherever possible not only because they damage the ocean floor, their made up of over 200 chemicals the leach into the ocean. Tires contain heavy metals (like zinc, lead, and cadmium) and petroleum-based compounds. When submerged, they slowly release these chemicals into the water, which can harm fish, corals, and other marine life.

See this honu turtle right above our work site. We are cleaning these toxic tires out for you, Buddy!

I finally made it a point to organize a cleanup event here to rid this amazing location of the toxic tires and trash that scatter with the currents. Most areas along the Northwest side of the Big Island get large swells and high wind, making it a challenge to find a calm weather day and to also pinpoint the exact location of tires as they often shift during these high swells. After several "scouting missions" with other divers, we took video and made a count of how many tires were scattered on the ocean floor and started to prep for this cleanup.

Regular ODA volunteers Jacques Delorme, Gunner Ganske, Milo Giorgio, Maile Goss, and James Kregness have been working this site over the course of around 8 months off and on, gathering tires from far out and deep, and bringing them into piles closer to the pier so we can get to them quickly and easily when the cleanup time came! This is truly challenging work as divers average around an hour for one scuba tank, and it can take up to 20 minutes or so just to move 1-2 tires! The hard work, time, and dedication to gathering these tires over this long period of time is truly appreciated and progress towards the ultimate removal of these toxic discards!

Volunteers gathered at Māhukona between 8 am and 9 am to sign waivers, make-ready their gear, and help set up and prepare for the briefing to begin around 9:15 am.

Check out our IMPRESSIVE turnout!

The volunteer support that came was truly overwhelming and very appreciated; the support of the community keeps us going and helps to keep our oceans clean! We had 60 volunteers participate! The list is as follows (if this list is missing anyone at all, please email Kay and we can make corrections! kay@oceandefenders.org) and I apologize for misspellings, reading this on the sign in sheet.

Volunteers this day were: Julia  Age; Elenor Alden; Todd Andrews; Kelly Arnold; Matt Belcher; Fasil Bizuneh; Mary Bizuneh; Moges Bizuneh; Meredith Breven; Babette Burke; Carl Cooper; Brandon Craft; Darren David; Jacques Delmorme; Tait Duus; Amy Ehn; Keone Emeliano; Mark England; Jeremy Evans; Chris  Furnada; Bonnie Gallagher; Trish Gallagher; Henry Gallagher; John Gallagher; Larkin Garden; David Giff; Milo Giorgio; Maile Goss; Todd Hackett; Mo Hennessy; Diana Hunt; Denise Jensen; Pamela Kicks; James Kregness; Kim Lynn; Suzanne Mankoff; Steve Mankoff; Melinda Menchetti; TJ Merrell.; Sarah Milisen; John Moore; Meghan Murray; Ali Niswonger; Dot Norris; Zaiden Oliveson; Bo Pardau; Jamie Pardau; Sarah Persselin; Kelli Pollak; Sharon Real; Jessica  Redford; James Redshaw; Ron Robinson; Julia  Rose; Jojo Taylor; Laurel Trammell; Don Tremel; Doug Watson; Tony White; and Marjorie Zensen.

Two of our volunteers donated the use of their trailers for the tires to be placed in. Todd Andrews and Todd Hackett drove and parked these into place near the edge of the pier to allow easy loading once the cleanup was done.

Everyone gathered around as I briefed the different teams and different tasks for everyone. There were 4 dive groups under water: 2 tire dive groups working each bundle, and 2 shallow, shore divers both to the north and the south of the park working on removing fishing line, lead, and other rubbish.

The divers working the tires brought lift bags and strong line to tie off the tires, using a spare scuba tank with a regulator attached, they then filled the tires with air, which lifted them off the bottom and went straight to the surface. Snorkelers and free divers were on the surface ready for the tires and to swim them back to shore, a hard and tiring job!

Freedivers were also assisting in bringing in the tires to shore also diving down to the divers below to bring them more lift bags as they were used. The first tire bundle, with around 12 tires, was sitting around 40 feet of water! Frequent ODA volunteers, Juan Chacin and Chad Merrill, were on the surface with their BCDs (Buoyancy Control Devices) inflated and using their DPVs (Dive Propulsion Vehicles) to also bring the tires into shore. Once the tires got to the pier, the shore support crew would use line that was attached to the tires and a pulley system that was set up on a boat crane (not currently in use). Todd Andrews set this up for us so the tires could be hoisted onto the land where the young kids started to use hand shovels to scoop out mud and save any ocean critters that came out on the tires. 

After completing work on the first bundle of tires, everyone had already been in the water for nearly the max planned dive time of 1 hour, but the divers and snorkelers could not find the second tire bundle.

James Kregness and Jacques Delorme, (mentioned above as the divers who helped bundle the tires over time), had gone very far out and deep to lift and tow the largest tire into shore, and found the second bundle of tires along the way, very far out and in around 65 feet of water! 

Several volunteers who were already out of the water got their gear back on, grabbed lift bags, lines, and DPVs and headed back out again to try to bring that second tire bundle back in.

Along with the surface support, 2 kayaks were in the water offering assistance in replacing full rubbish bags, new line and lift bags, and watching for divers’ and snorkelers’ safety as everyone was working. The volunteers who manned the kayaks, Don Tremel in one, and Kim Lynn with Babette Burke in the other, were truly instrumental in the aid and safety they provided to all the cleanup crew.

Here tires are being pulled into the shoreline:

Unfortunately, the time came where did have to call the cleanup and stop working so everyone could come in safely, get the group photo, and help load all the tires and rubbish into Todd Andrews trailer to take for recycling the next day, so the second bundle of tires (about 6 of them), were placed in a secure location under water for removal on a future date. 

In total, around 18 whole tires and 3-4 tire fragments were removed with a total weight of 1,260 pounds! WOW!! There was also around 200 feet of fishing line, 20 fishing lead weights, several broken glass fragments, around 6 glass bottles, 3 metal bars, a couple golf balls, fragments of aluminum cans, several large, plastic zip ties, various other plastic fragments, and parts from a couple cell phones removed from the ocean!

Thank you for caring about our oceans—every small action from where you are, whether spreading awareness, reducing waste, or supporting cleanup efforts like ours, helps protect marine life and keep our waters thriving.