Veteran’s Park A Dirty Dead Zone Challenge

[Dive California]

Have you been diving Vet’s since the completion of the Sand Replacement? The thousands of San Dollars in the many Sand Dollar beds that stretched from Tops to the Pier are all (99%) gone, buried from the polluted sands dumped onto them from the muck dredged up from Marine Del Rey Harbor. An environmental hazard, that’ll take years to come back….so sad.

I’d like to ask all my diver friends to take a game bag and fill-up as much of the plastic, rubber, aluminum, and other crap….to help clean-up this site. Most of the crap is sitting in the 55-75’ ledge. The plastic has small bites taken out by the few remaining fish and other sea-life down there. The shallows are covered in a black tar ball field that quickly mucks up the viz with the slightest wave action….that can’t be healthy.

Thanks ahead of time for your efforts…PM me if you want to clean-up with me.

 

[Pinkyfoool]

Every time I go out to vets its a cleanup dive for me. It's frustrating to see this happen. Eventually it will be clean with the help of everyone. Let me know if you ever need a buddy, nights are best for me.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

Have you been diving Vet’s since the completion of the Sand Replacement? The thousands of San Dollars in the many Sand Dollar beds that stretched from Tops to the Pier are all (99%) gone

In fairness, most of those Sand Dollars have been gone long before the renourishment project started. It used to be that you could drop down in 10-12' and they were all over the place, as well as served for a good marker when you were heading back in. They haven't been there like that for at least a couple of years.

But I share your concern with what's happened to the place. So . . .

I've been talking for the past few weeks with Heal the Bay who's been in touch with DF&G as well as Army Corps of Emngineers. I've also been keeping in touch with Congresswoman Janice Hahn's office since it's her district (soon to become Henry Waxman's - but I've been in touch with someone there as well). I was out diving last week and videotaped the debris field and made sure they all got copies. Despite the fact we've been bitching and moaning about this since the start of this project, the extent of the damage came as a "surprise" to everyone involved. However . . .

NOAA was also notified and they went out and took an UW peek and saw what we all have been seeing. (They also dove right under where the barge was working, a spot I don't personally dive.) EPA has been notified about the environmental issues. The Army Corps of Engineers is interviewing the contractor to see what went wrong. (My understanding is there were some problems with the MDR dredging as well.) One partial remedy here (at least for the future) may be that the contractor gets banned from doing these types of projects in the future. They're also discussing if this rises to a level of compensatory mitigation but one of the issues is, who do you compensate for the damage?

I've also raised with HtB the issues of the vast amount of pplastic that I was seeing and wondered if that's something the contractor can be cited for in terms of illegal disposal of trash in the ocean. I'm not sure if it rises to a criminal level but it might be something that EPA or someone like that can sanction them for.

The NOAA thought is NOT to try to remove the debris, at least not by them. They say in an e-mail to HtB: "The issue is essentially a marine debris impact. Given the diffuse nature of the debris, it would likely do more harm than good to try to remove it (at least by mechanical means and a manual approach may be impractical)." I'd say if we're removing things, we should remove things like plastic but leave the organic matter alone. It will decay and there may be a long-term good effect from that. I've mentioned that when I was there the other day, there were more crabs around than I've ever seen before. Biggest issue to me is, how will this impact the squid starting mid-December when it's mating and egg-laying time?

So the point of this is to let you all know that SOMEthing (hopefully) is being done on a governmental level. But like all things governmental, it moves at a slow pace.

- Ken

 

[MaxBottomtime]

We made a dive near the pilings this afternoon. Lots of sand stirred up, despite the flat sea and no surge. I would estimate that there is about one percent of the life that was there before. Very little algae on the bottom and only a few small crabs walking across the sand. Merry described the bottom as dead compost. In 91 minutes under water I found three nudibranchs. We couldn't find any of the five pilings. I don't know if they are covered or if the vis was just so bad that we couldn't see them. Kevin Lee went into the canyon to 100 feet and reported nothing but furrows of sand. I don't think I will be diving there for a couple of years.

 

[stevensamler]

My buddy and i dove vets today and were surprised with the bad vis and all the damage done by the dredging disposal from mdr. Found the cement blocks on the slope at 65' and found 4 octopus inside 2 were small and 2 were much bigger. Did our part and brought up as much trash as we could handle.

 

[Dive California]

I know, that most divers I've seen are coming up with trash...so thanks.

Ken...I dive Vets just about every week (at least once) and the sand dollar beds were very healthy prior to dumping...I haven't seen more than 2 on any dive I've done since. The contractor could have placed a screen to catch most of the trash, prior to dumping in Redondo. All I'm bringing up are the various plastic products, cans, and electrical pieces (I assume are from boat repairs in the harbor); and would agree that organic material could stay down there. Would also agree that any kind of raking mechanically would probably do more harm than good.

Phil, thanks I was wondering about the Topaz pilings.

I'd be curious see any testing of the bio-hazards at vets...I can taste the difference from prior to dumping...can't be healty for us.

 

[undrwater]

I agree with Dive California's assessment of the sand dollar beds. They were quite prolific JUST prior to the "renourishment". This Wednesday a group of divers is gathering specifically to remove trash. This is obviously not going to be a one-day recovery though. Regarding the pilings, I believe a team had actually found them, so I am ALMOST sure they are not buried.

If you are going to clean up, be very careful what you pick up. Several divers have brought up live octopus. This is going to be arduous.

 

[Spg01]

There was actually a cleanup last Wednesday night. I think there was about 33 divers in total that brought up 57 lbs of trash. As an added treat conditions were excelent! Surf might have hit 6 inches if that, about 20' visibility or more and the best part was the squid that were running down around 70-80'. There were also smaller groups of squid as shallow as 30'.

 

[Dive California]

Thanks SPG01...I spoke with my buddy Claudette and Rob yesterday (Friday) morning, while gearing up to do another clean-up....they organzixed the Wednesday clean-up and were planning on going back out the next few Wednesday Nights. Thanks guys, you made a huge difference in the area you hit.

I came up with 5 lbs of crap yesterday, and when I was going thru the stuff discovered a octopus, which I ran back down to the surfline....so, Yes, be careful of critters inside the crap.

 

[Spg01]

DiveVets : Friends Getting Wet! | Join our active and fun group of SoCal divers. and The Dive Matrix both have threads about the cleanup. So I would imagine they will also have updates on future cleanups. There was also a thread in the trips and local market place forum for the last cleanup.