By Founder and President Kurt Lieber
While getting a window of opportunity to get into a site that is normally beset by strong wave action and the resultant surge, 3 Ocean Defender Alliance (ODA) volunteers grabbed their dive gear and made the leap.
The site is called McGregor Point Lighthouse. It’s on the west side of Maui, not far from a town called Maalaea. It was Wednesday, July 15th.
McGregor Pt. has a spectacular reef system that surrounds the area. With steep cliffs that ring the shoreline. Those cliffs make it easy for fishermen to cast their lines from, and due to that easy accessibility, a lot of lead fishing weight and fishing line get caught up on the reef structure and get left behind.
This creates an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality. Well, maybe to some, but not to the divers who enjoy the beauty of all the animals that call this site home.
Jessica Albietz, Lloyd Johnson, and Brian Seifert hauled all their dive gear down the cliffs and spent about an hour looking for any man-made debris that they could find.
Dive conditions were in their favor, and they were able to get up close to shore and clean the reef of any gear they found there. They can’t normally get into the shallows here due to the surge, which makes it difficult to keep from getting thrown onto the corals.
As they were doing their work, Jessica saw a young honu turtle finning its way through fishing line that was suspended in the water. Luckily it didn’t get entangled!
However, a sponge crab wasn’t so fortunate and was pretty much hog tied in multiple pieces of line. The team was able to cut him free, and he seemed pleased to be able to get a new lease on life.
All told, they removed 42 pounds of lead fishing weights, 24 hooks and lures, about 600 feet of fishing line, as well as other broken pieces of fishing gear.
This makes for a total of 690 pounds of lead they have removed thus far for 2026.
Thank you, Jessica, Lloyd and Brian. The reefs can breathe a little easier due to your dedication!
