Survey Photos

Additional Information

For tires, the use of used tires as cheap boat bumpers in marinas is a common thing. Unfortunately, the ropes used to hang them from piers will eventually break due to been exposed to the elements and the sun. Tires will be replaced, but the fallen ones are left in the water.

Large flat screen television

Tires

Comments and Feedback

We had 33 divers and 38 shore support, for a total of 71 volunteers. For the last few years, we have organized cleanup dives with a specific effort to attract none divers to our events and help us from shore, in an attempt to raise awareness to the masses about underwater pollution. If an event like this is only run by divers, we cannot accomplish as much. By having shore support volunteers, preferably in a 2:1 ratio (2 shore support to 1 diver), we can accomplish a lot more in one event. We would like to see a way to capture other types of volunteers than just scuba divers. In the past, we have used canoes and kayaks as above water support, either towing debris (tires on a lift bag) or collecting mesh garbage bags from divers. This helps divers not having to swim all the way back to shore, and get a lot more done. Therefore, have more boxes where to input volunteers.

Tires, especially near piers and in marinas. These have been used as cheap boat bumpers. They degrade and decay, slowly releasing harmful contaminants. While it may be a great way to reuse used tires, education must be done to reduce the lost of these tires. When used with ropes, more often than not with poly lines, these ropes will eventually break (degrading due to sun and element exposure). Other times, when chains are used instead of ropes, the tires themselves will start breaking down with age and they will rip and fall in the water. Again, education into responsible use of used tires as boat bumpers could help reduce the amount of tires ending at the bottom of the water.