Team up to clean up!
Our fourth and last Quarterly Clean Up Dive of 2020 was on October 17th. Due to the current situation with COVID-19, all things are a little bit different then our previous clean ups. That was not going to ruin the fun (or any day for that matter!)!
We met up with our Dive Friends staff and volunteers at our central location, Yellow Submarine. Our goal was to clean-up the Bonaire Harbor front. A big wind reversal hit this part a few days ago. There was a lot of damage to the local fishermen’s pier and the boats that are moored up. It blew a lot of trash into the ocean. Our crew and volunteers were there at the right time and at the right moment to clean up the trash!
To make sure everyone’s health and safety was guaranteed. We made a reservation schedule for checking in our 40 volunteers. The first group started at 9 am then with 20 minutes interval time. We continued until all 40 people were checked in.
The divers had a great time, who can blame them!? Going out for a beautiful dive and doing something good for the ocean, is always a good idea! The first group returned after about an hour and we started counting right away. There was a lot more trash then we expected, and bags returned full or overflowing, which is a good thing! This means the ocean is a lot of a cleaner place now then it was yesterday 😉
Collected trash
We collected 180 kilos of trash, most of which were plastic fragments. We also collected 144 glass bottles, a reef anchor and a few very new looking pieces of clothing. After sorting out all the trash we put it in separate containers provided by Selibon. They sponsor us in every clean up dive and recycle all the trash. We register every piece of trash to Project AWARE.
Project AWARE
Project aware is worldwide non-profit organization. It is based solely on the conservation of our oceans, marine life, and everything that we love and want to preserve.
The data that they receive from clean up dives all over the world, can not only lead to the sources of pollution, but also built a detailed map of all marine debris that is cleaned out by divers.
For the actual results and more details about this cleanup dive please check out our Project AWARE page, which has every single piece of trash we counted nicely displayed in a virtual graph.
More information on Project AWARE and the worldwide marine debris map.
Eco-conscious
Dive Friends Bonaire is eco-conscious and organizes monthly clean ups. We are a 100% AWARE Dive shop! We have adopted and maintained our house reefs by doing clean up dives. All our dive shops are as eco-friendly as possible. As a result of our 100% status, we get to certify you with cool cards with pictures of manta’s, sharks, and leafy green sea dragons.
Thank you for joining this clean up dive!
In the end it was a delightful end of a very successful day. Again, we left the ocean a little cleaner than it was before, and we got to hang out with super enthusiastic divers.
A big shoutout to all our volunteer divers, crew and everyone that has made this clean up dive possible!
If you were on this Quarterly Clean Up Dive, thank you for protecting our ocean and we hope to see you a next time!
By: Pieter de Groot
