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News and Media

News and Media

Oahu’s Island Divers are awesome ocean cleanup partners!

Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) has monthly cleanup dives on Island Diver boats. We have been focusing on an area of Oahu called China Walls.

These “walls” are sheer cliffs that drop into the water. Many people come here for recreational fishing as you can see in the photo below. Unfortunately, their gear often ends up in the water and becomes “ghost gear” attaching itself to the coral on the seabed.

China Walls, Oahu, HI

Our goal is to get it off that coral so that it is not smothered by the equipment and additional trash. The coral serves as food and habitat for many animals, so it’s vital that it stays healthy.

Man, oh man – we have divers!

Other than our expedition leader Mary Christensen, all of our divers were males on this outing!

ODA Volunteer Divers get SCUBA briefing

We were pleased to be joined by new volunteers from the Navy Dive group. Thanks to all of you and we hope to see you again!

Ocean Life Abound

For the marine debris cleanup, we enjoyed a beautiful day with lighter winds. This was especially welcomed because earlier in the week there were small craft warnings.

As we left the dock, we were greeted by a monk seal and a green sea turtle. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a shot of these two!

However, we got a great shot of a small pod of dolphins who joined us by the China Walls.

Spinner Dolphins, Oahu, HI

The Day’s Catch

We estimated that we hauled in 80 - 100 pounds of lead weight. In addition to all the fishing line there was a variety of trash such as a big LED light and fishing pole.

ODA-HI Crew with catch of the day

Also, we have regularly been finding that fishermen are using spark plugs as weights, and bike spokes are being re-purposed to use as gear. Whatever it is, we are going to remove it!

For those of you reading this who are divers living in Oahu and care about the oceans, we’d love for to join us on our next dive on November 18th. For more information, please check out the Island Divers website page.