HBDiveGirl
Contributor
- Messages
- 1,329
- Reaction score
- 44
- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
Team Good Guy delivers again!
Wednesday, November 28th, another 14 pounds of icky yucky trash gathered by about a dozen divers, donating time, gas, skill, and energy to clean up Veteran's Park.
Awesome!
59lbs + 72lbs + 14lbs = 145 pounds of trash on three group dives, plus lots and lots and lots of poundage removed by divers all the time since this pollution event happened at the end of summer.
The November 28th Event:
CDIP kept showing a smoooov ocean at Veteran's Park all day on the status board.
It was misting at 7PM and clouds reduced the full moon to a fuzzy whitish glow in the gray sky.
The sea was Mill-Pond Flat.
Glassy.
Reflective.
2-inch ripples rubbed against the sand.
Flags hung limply from the poles as we gathered under a mist so gentle and warm it was almost soothing.
Kathryn and Roc described the Contaminated Sediment Committee meeting they and Ken Kurtis had attended that morning.
Apparently the evidence collected and presented by several divers was a quiet revelation to the committee.
Each speaker described the trash problem and many questions were asked, some of them appropriately challenging.
How else could they discern disorganized complainers from informed, passionate, organized advocates except by asking questions?
They asked what makes this place different from others.
They asked why we dive here.
And instructors and divers told them how important it is for teaching, for a diver's first impression of our glorious underwater world, for the experience of seeing amazing animals such as squid rise up from the depths at night for us to witness.
They suspected the clean-up effort was haphazard and chaotic.
They were deeply impressed by Roc's answer that we laid a transect line to organize the clean up and set up depth contour lines for maximum effectiveness.
It appears that this event will be part of a new era of monitoring and regulation of a constant activity in California: Dredging sediment and moving it to other places on the coast.
Trash of the past 20 years has changed the debris pollution of many sites being dredged.
It's being recognized that the sediment collected must be inspected prior to deposition, and filtering systems (such as "grizzlies") used when debris is found in the sediment.
It was mentioned that if they had sent one diver down to inspect the unfiltered sand dropped on the bottom of the sea they would have seen the trash right away and known to require filtering.
We'll clean up Vet's Park and they'll set up rules to prevent this from happening again.
The Dive:
Apparently this was my check-out dive for the Lake Diver Specialty as Kathryn and I walked west from the beach and eventually noticed we were standing in water up to our waists.
hmmm..... must be in the sea.
Yes, it was that flat.
Vis was a lovely 20-25 feet... and then went to 2 feet when we started picking up trash at 45 fsw.
Thousands of irritated octopus gave us bad looks over 4 of their eight shoulders as we blinded them and then unleashed a silt storm.
"Sorry...Sorry... just cleaning up, won't be long... sorry.."
The Navanax population explosion continues.
The trash level is clearly getting better at The Salad Bowl, while lots of debris was still pooled around "the new monument" in front of the middle steps.
We focused on the 45 - 70 foot zone and bagged bunches of trash, leaving the place looking better yet.
Thank you, Kathryn, for slowing down for a lumbering, weenie dry-suit diver. ;-)
You did all this at 70 fsw in a wet suit. That is bad-a $ $.
Back on shore, the soft mist continued as Shore-Volunteer, Mary, weighed the collected trash and sorted out all the animals for repatriation.
Another excellent clean-up dive.
A great day for California beaches in the coming decades as our passion and work will help shape new policies on dredging and "renourishment" projects all over the state.
There are not enough thanks for the continuing generosity of all who are answering the call, day after day, diving solo or in teams or large groups, as we clean up our favorite mudhole.
See you next week!!
Next dive: Wednesday December 5th, 2012
7pm meet and dive.
~~~~~
Claudette
Wednesday, November 28th, another 14 pounds of icky yucky trash gathered by about a dozen divers, donating time, gas, skill, and energy to clean up Veteran's Park.
Awesome!
59lbs + 72lbs + 14lbs = 145 pounds of trash on three group dives, plus lots and lots and lots of poundage removed by divers all the time since this pollution event happened at the end of summer.
The November 28th Event:
CDIP kept showing a smoooov ocean at Veteran's Park all day on the status board.
It was misting at 7PM and clouds reduced the full moon to a fuzzy whitish glow in the gray sky.
The sea was Mill-Pond Flat.
Glassy.
Reflective.
2-inch ripples rubbed against the sand.
Flags hung limply from the poles as we gathered under a mist so gentle and warm it was almost soothing.
Kathryn and Roc described the Contaminated Sediment Committee meeting they and Ken Kurtis had attended that morning.
Apparently the evidence collected and presented by several divers was a quiet revelation to the committee.
Each speaker described the trash problem and many questions were asked, some of them appropriately challenging.
How else could they discern disorganized complainers from informed, passionate, organized advocates except by asking questions?
They asked what makes this place different from others.
They asked why we dive here.
And instructors and divers told them how important it is for teaching, for a diver's first impression of our glorious underwater world, for the experience of seeing amazing animals such as squid rise up from the depths at night for us to witness.
They suspected the clean-up effort was haphazard and chaotic.
They were deeply impressed by Roc's answer that we laid a transect line to organize the clean up and set up depth contour lines for maximum effectiveness.
It appears that this event will be part of a new era of monitoring and regulation of a constant activity in California: Dredging sediment and moving it to other places on the coast.
Trash of the past 20 years has changed the debris pollution of many sites being dredged.
It's being recognized that the sediment collected must be inspected prior to deposition, and filtering systems (such as "grizzlies") used when debris is found in the sediment.
It was mentioned that if they had sent one diver down to inspect the unfiltered sand dropped on the bottom of the sea they would have seen the trash right away and known to require filtering.
We'll clean up Vet's Park and they'll set up rules to prevent this from happening again.
The Dive:
Apparently this was my check-out dive for the Lake Diver Specialty as Kathryn and I walked west from the beach and eventually noticed we were standing in water up to our waists.
hmmm..... must be in the sea.
Yes, it was that flat.
Vis was a lovely 20-25 feet... and then went to 2 feet when we started picking up trash at 45 fsw.
Thousands of irritated octopus gave us bad looks over 4 of their eight shoulders as we blinded them and then unleashed a silt storm.
"Sorry...Sorry... just cleaning up, won't be long... sorry.."
The Navanax population explosion continues.
The trash level is clearly getting better at The Salad Bowl, while lots of debris was still pooled around "the new monument" in front of the middle steps.
We focused on the 45 - 70 foot zone and bagged bunches of trash, leaving the place looking better yet.
Thank you, Kathryn, for slowing down for a lumbering, weenie dry-suit diver. ;-)
You did all this at 70 fsw in a wet suit. That is bad-a $ $.
Back on shore, the soft mist continued as Shore-Volunteer, Mary, weighed the collected trash and sorted out all the animals for repatriation.
Another excellent clean-up dive.
A great day for California beaches in the coming decades as our passion and work will help shape new policies on dredging and "renourishment" projects all over the state.
There are not enough thanks for the continuing generosity of all who are answering the call, day after day, diving solo or in teams or large groups, as we clean up our favorite mudhole.
See you next week!!
Next dive: Wednesday December 5th, 2012
7pm meet and dive.
~~~~~
Claudette
Last edited:
