As September rolls back around so does our annual clean up of Petone Wharf and the surrounds.
This year our newest Dive Master Zac was in charge of organising the event as part of his Diploma Program. So armed with gear lists, report forms, sign up sheets and a truck load of gear we headed down to the wharf.

We couldn't have asked for better weather, sun shine and light northerlies. Visibility was never going to be great and not a problem at this site.

With 11 divers heading underwater and 18 volunteers on the wharf as support crew or along the beaches collecting rubbish we had a lot of local support on the day which is always great to see.

The divers managed to collect ~138kg of rubbish which they passed up to surface support on ropes so they didn't have to swim it back in. Most of the rubbish was fishing related with several knifes, rods, bait containers and hats found. There was also wharf materials that have fallen off or were left behind as replacement work was done. We also found a couple of Ganesh figures left behind after a recent festival. The most unusual find was a stash of .38 calibre bullets!
 

Along the beach our volunteers collected 1000's of small pieces of rubbish (36kgs worth) mainly small pieces of plastic, food wrappers and cigarette butts :(

After the clean up there was time to inspect the rubbish, chat with old friends and meet some new ones as everyone enjoyed the BBQ and cake made especially for us by Emma.