On Saturday, April 13, 2013, volunteer divers gathered at Dive Friends Bonaire @ Dive Inn for the second quarterly clean up dive of the year.  It was a beautiful sunny morning with perfect dive conditions, as usual for Bonaire.  All of the participants collected their free tanks from the dive center and then assembled for the safety briefing.

The eighty-nine volunteers that signed in were a mix of local residents and visiting tourists who all wanted to help the environment of Bonaire.  Asko Zuidam of Dive Friends Bonaire provided a safety briefing to address what items should be collected and explained that anything with coral growing on it or creatures living inside of it should be left behind.   He also gave an explanation of how to carefully remove fishing line so as not to damage delicate sponges or corals.

After the briefing, the divers entered the water at Playa Cha Cha Cha and swam a short distance over to Kralendijk’s South Pier.  It was quite an experienced group and they spread out around the entire pier in buddy teams, filling the water with bubbles.  When their bags were filled with marine debris, they brought the bags to the surface and handed them over to the Dive Friends crew who were working as shore support.  Volunteers checked once again to be sure that no marine creatures had been inadvertently included.  Then, everything was counted, tallied for statistics, and disposed of responsibly. 

The South Pier is a working pier used by cruise ships and container ships and is also a very popular place to fish.  Therefore, it has a large amount of items that have blown overboard and unfortunately, a lot of discarded fishing line.  Discarded fishing line poses a serious threat of entanglement and drowning to  endangered sea turtles, as well as other marine life.  Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire is targeting the issue with additional “line clean up dives” with tanks supplied by Dive Friends, but it requires constant vigilance around all of the piers of Bonaire. 

Over 1,476 items of marine debris were removed.  The most significant items removed were 365 pieces of fishing line.  The strangest things removed where a goat skull, a full can of sardines, a full can of SPAM and an umbrella stand.  Other items included: 345 bottles, 193 plastic fragments, 74 plastic cups, 83 cloth fragments, 20 cardboard boxes, 18 ropes, 4 pairs of sunglasses and much more.

That evening, all participants and their families were welcomed back for a Pot Luck BBQ and raffle at the recently remodeled Dive Friends Bonaire @ Hamlet Oasis.  Dive Friends Bonaire (with help from our sponsors) provided drinks and main courses, while participants supplied side dishes.   Hamlet Oasis is also the location of the Debris Free Bonaire plastic collection container, so volunteers learned more about the new coastal clean-up initiative targeting floating marine plastic that washes ashore on Bonaire’s east coast.

Sponsors for the event include:  Ouray Sportswear, Bonaire East Coast Diving, Deep Blue Gear, Bonaire Marine Park, Selibon, Bonaire Food Group, Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire, Reef Safe Suncare, Your Scuba Store, Princeton Tec, Cressi, Body Glove, Native Outfitters and Reef Footwear.

The next quarterly Dive Friends Bonaire underwater cleanup is scheduled for Saturday, July 13th, 2013.

Additional information about the cleanups is available at: http://www.dive-friends-bonaire.com/activities.html#cleanups .   All are welcome to join in.

For more information about the Debris Free Bonaire initiative, visit www.debrisfreebonaire.com.