Clean Up Dive | July 2019

 

Team up to clean up! Another successful Dive Friends Bonaire Quarterly Clean Up Dive at North Pier Saturday, July 27th. The North (or town) pier is used by cargo/cruise/military ships; which means it sees a lot of traffic and is not usually open for scuba diving. Furthermore, fisherman choose this as a spot to dangle their lines looking for their catch of the day. Combine these two factors, and you’ll see why there’s a lot of rubbish to clean up here.

Thank you to the 84 volunteers: locals and visitors who came out full of enthusiasm and energy. We removed an estimated 440 lbs. of trash from the reef, the equivalent weight of a blue whale’s heart. This was largely due to the hundreds of glass/ceramic bottles and fragments collected. Plus, 15 tires from the help of the awesome team at Deepsea Freediving School Bonaire.

Although plastics were not the most abundant category for the first time in 2 years, fishing line remained the most abundant item. Roughly 80 km; we estimated you could stretch the line from here to Curacao! All items are sorted and counted; with the data getting reported to Project Aware. Don’t let your dives go to waste, dive against debris! See you at the next one: Saturday, October 29th 2019.