By ODA Hawai’i Island Chapter Leader Sarah Milisen

ODA's Makau vessel, in Kailua-Kona, is our mission-driven ODA boat. We take our monthly donors (qualified divers) out to clean up the ocean - and September 1^st and 2^nd were all about TIRES. 

Tires are full of chemicals. Over 200 compounds are used to make a tire slushy, before sealants and more chemical treatments are used to solidify the tire. There's been several "environmental opportunities" to dump millions of tires into the ocean as artificial reefs - for scientists to then deem them environmental disasters and spend millions  of dollars and decades to clean them up (See: Osborne Reef in Florida, Marine Forest Society’s  California project in 1988, Malaysia in the 1980s, etc).

I'm not sure why all these tires exist in Kailua Bay, but they need to get out and we’re working to ensure this happens 

Volunteers for Tuesday, September 1^st, were: Milo Giorgio, Jeff Milisen, Bo and Jamie Pardau. and Drew.

Jeff and another ODA volunteer John Gallagher previously surveyed and marked a dozen tires near the pier - so Tuesday's mission was to collect the tires at one or a couple of those points. We deployed our first dive team of Jeff and Jamie to start digging, and they almost immediately popped the tire up to the surface almost before Bo could jump in and capture it!

With crew quickly back on board, the 180-pound tire was wrestled on board, and the second dive team, Milo and Drew, were deployed. They had a lot more digging to do. 30ish minutes later, ANOTHER big tire popped to the surface! Two of these monster tires, plus all our gear, resulted in an overloaded boat- so we set out to return to the harbor to clean the boat and recycle the 360 pounds of tires.

Now, ODA volunteers MIGHT be a litttttttle competitive... so when Wednesday's volunteers heard that yesterday's team got 2 tires weighing 360 total pounds...well, we had to do better! ;)

Volunteers for the Wednesday outing were: Juan Chacin, Kay Cooper, John Gallagher, Jeff Milisen, Tony White, and 2 new divers Anita and Tori!

So, after a short cleanup dive at another location along the way (that's another follow up article!) we arrived in Kailua Bay near our old Tire Valley location. Our goal was to look for smaller tires this time.

Tony brought his Blue Robotics ROV and sent it down to find tires. One was found almost immediately. Juan and Kay were deployed to follow the ROV communications line down to the tire (the ROV was holding station on it) and then pop that tire up while the ROV looks for a second tire for the divers to follow to. Juan and Kay immediately found two small tires, popped them up with lift bags, and returned to the surface after just a few minutes. With ample air, and the ROV low on battery, we sent them in the 300-degree heading to scout more - and Tony and I jumped in to join them in a short survey as well. I hadn't even descended yet when I could see a dozen small tires below - I hollered to the boat our plan, and we popped as many as we could to the surface - and then carried whatever else we could back with us! Captain John G operated the helm perfectly as Anita and Tori muscled up each tire we sent to the surface. 

 Our Wednesday volunteers collected a total of NINE tires, some piping, PVC, ropes and carpet from Kailua Bay. And when I went to recycle it - you wouldn't believe our debris totaled 360lb ALSO!!! So, everyone was happy in having "tied" in the tire removal battle of September 1 & 2 aboard ODA's Makau. That's over 700 POUNDS OF TIRES IN 2 trips!!!

Thanks to all you amazing ODA volunteers, donors, and readers!