It's June and it's a little bit cold in Melbourne, but this did not stop our team of awesome divers from donning their scuba gear and descending on Mordialloc pier on Sunday June 25th to clean up the dive site once again. Bad weather and sickness had stopped us last month, but nothing could stop us this time!

Thankfully, this time there was no metres of plastic wrapping strewn in the boat channel, although the shore was looking a little bit littered. After a brief discussion about our mission, the group went below the waves as the wind picked up a little and started our hour-long Dive Against Debris. New dry suits and surge meant that some of our divers had to battle slightly different diving conditions than they were used to, but everyone pulled together and worked in their buddy teams: chopping fishing line, picking up bottles, unsnagging lures, pulling up piping and binning Barbie dolls in an effort to clean up the dive site.

One of the issues that often comes up when doing these clean-ups is, at what point has the debris become part of the natural habitat of the dive site? Animal displacement is not the aim of these dives, since it causes stress to the animal and potentially leaves them without a form of shelter. It's always an interesting discussion, because people want to do the right thing, and in many cases it's a judgement call. We make sure that we waft the area before we pick anything up and then check carefully to see if there is an animal living inside. If there is, and they're not trapped, we let them be. In some senses, this is just another effect of urbanisation - but, of course, we aim to stop this happening as much as possible.

In total, we picked up more than 77 individual pieces of debris, an estimated 17kg, with fishing line so intertwined, it's impossible to say how much is really there. Some of the most interesting loot in this haul was a car spring, a Barbie doll and some ID. We had bricks, bottles, the usual suspects again of lures and line, metal rods, cutlery and various plastic fragments. Although this is a fair amount of debris, the site was much improved since our last visit. Clearly, the tides are turning at Mordialloc, and both divers and the general public are becoming more aware of the problems that can arise by discarding rubbish into the ocean. This is an awesome result, and we are so thankful for all of our fantastic divers who made this possible. We will keep going to make Mordialloc as debris-free as possible!

Diving in winter in Melbourne is not a beach holiday, and for those who were still in wetsuits, or battled with new dry suits formidably, you all are awesome and it's a pleasure to dive with you. Once again, the spirit and energy of everyone involved was fantastic, and we are looking forward to the next clean up!