By ODA Hawai’i Island Chapter Leader Sarah Milisen

"Should we cancel?"

That is always the most perplexing situation we find ourselves in when organizing any Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) cleanup that involves getting divers in the water. 

The swell forecast was 6-8ft for a site called South Point.  It’s on far south end of the Island of Hawai’i.  I’ve been coordinating this cleanup with Megan Lampson of the Hawai'i Wildlife Fund for months. 

While discussing this with my husband, Jeff Milisen, he said "It's a long drive down there to check conditions and then not get in.  So, let's just cancel. There's no way we can get divers in there with a 6-foot swell coming from the South."

I called Megan to cancel. I messaged all the volunteers that this would only be a beach cleanup, no diving. Then, Megan gave us a boost of spirits a couple days later: “Forecast shows maybe a drop? Maybe plan to go?”  Aggggh! "OK, we're on. Let’s try it!"

So, I lost a volunteer diver or two due to my wishy-washy-ness... but we gathered our team early on Saturday, June 6th, and filled our ODA truck with divers and dive gear and headed down to South Point.  When we got there – the swell was pretty much nonexistent, making the entrance for the divers just perfect.

Megan's team led an Oli (an indigenous chant, in this case asking permission to enter the water), and we geared up and got in. Megan brought over 20 volunteers to do some SERIOUS beach cleaning – they picked up 35 bags full of debris!!! 

This site is not easy to access, due to the steep cliffs you have to traverse with your gear before you even get to the rocky shoreline.  It’s a drop of about 30 feet. 

There were 30 volunteers in total. Divers worked until they pulled their last breath of air from their tanks.  They then got out quickly to change tanks, and jumped right back in.

Cleaning up Southpoint underwater is one of those rare opportunities – it’s gotta be calm, not too many fishing lines in the water.  

Divers need to have topside support to pull up the bags and toss new ones, and a freediver to shuttle lift bags and heavy bags to the hoist and back down to the divers – it’s a TON of coordination – so when we can get the opportunity to get in down there – it’s a mad rush to get as much as we can as fast as we can.

ODA Crew with their catch of the day

Divers pulled up 67 pounds of lead fishing weights in the 2 dives.  With about 100 pounds of line and debris! I found one very encrusted drone. Divers also found: 2 smart watches, 2 CAR BATTERIES, 1 knife (returned to its owner!), 2 vapes, a truck leaf spring (great grab, Jeff!) a Dino toy, sunglasses, goggles, and a mask. 

Our Collaboration brought in a total of 692 pounds of debris (about 525 of that topside feed bags, and 70 pounds of lead). WHAT A HAUL!