Our project to remove marine debris after cyclone Pam

The aim of the project was to remove debris created by Tropical Cyclone Pam from the waters of Port Vila Harbour. Whilst the clean up on land had started in earnest, nothing was being done about the marine debris. This is likely due to the debris being out of site and inaccessible to most local people and a lack of government funding for this activity. Big Blue used their employee divers to manually collect the debris and bring it onto shore. A hired truck was used to remove some of the larger items from the water and dispose of the debris either by taking it for recycling or to the landfill.

The results

The project ran from 2nd April to 27th May 2105. Up to 7 Big Blue staff divers and 4 volunteers took part each day for 34 days during the project. They performed 278 dives and collectively spent 18,927 minutes or 315 hours underwater collecting debris as well as time on the boat and on shore bring the debris to land. During the project 20,000 square meters of seabed was been cleared 

The Debris

A total of 12,101 kg of debris was been removed. The majority of the debris was from boats that were wrecked on the seawall during cyclone Pam. Here is a breakdown of what we removed

• Metal 3960 Kg
• Wood 1287 Kg
• Fberglass 1431Kg
• Electronics 184 Kg
• Batteries 388 Kg
• Other ribbish 1551 Kg
• TOTAL 12,101 Kg. 

These boats were made of fiberglass, aluminum or wood and some of the hulls were smashed in to small pieces. Nearly four tonnes of metal and over four and a half tonnes of fiberglass have been removed from the marine environment. The contents of the boats also littered the seabed. Electronics, cookers, plumbing ropes, sails and many other pieces of boating equipment were amongst the debris.  Batteries and several outboard motors (which were leaking oil) have been removed. All the metals, electronics, engines and batteries have been taken to a local recycling company, for recycling. The remaining debris was disposed of in the landfill.  

Positive outcomes from this project

• Over 12 tonnes of debris was removed from the seafront and therefore the threat to the marine life that it posed has been ameliorated. Several sails as well as other material items that were entangled around and smothering coral have been removed. Many, many sheets of fiberglass and aluminum that were lying on the seabed have been removed. This allows the benthonic invertebrates and bottom feeding fish to play their important ecosystem role of recycling nutrients. Plastic debris that could be mistaken for food by turtles and other marine life has been removed.  
• 388 kilograms of batteries, and several motors and fuel tanks have been removed. Not only are these items toxic to marine life but they also have the potential to enter the human food chain via fish and other seafood harvested from the area.
• There were several pieces of boat hull, which were floating with attached ropes and sails causing boating hazards in the area. The area is used by tourism operations as well as by local taxi boats. These hazards were removed.
• Some of the debris was either floating or sticking out of the water. In addition, as Port Vila harbour is blessed with clear waters, the debris, particularly at low tide, was clearly visible from the shore. The seafront is an area of high tourist traffic the therefore the debris was detrimental to tourism. This unsightly debris has been removed assisting the Vanuatu tourism industry to recover from the affects of the cyclone.
• This project has covered the wages of up to 7 Ni-Vanuatu divers a day and has allowed Big Blue to keep all the staff employed even though tourism numbers and hence the number of divers are significantly reduced in the aftermath of the cyclone.
• The project attracted interest from local and international divers. Five volunteers, all PADI Divemasters or Instructors, made several dives over the course of the 6 weeks and contributed greatly to this project. The Project featured on the front page of the Daily Post, Vanuatu’s only daily newspaper and was well received by Big Blue’s followers on Facebook. In this way this project, hopefully, has contributed to the awareness of the issue of marine debris and its affect on the marine ecosystem.