Dive Against Debris with Sea Experience

On Sunday, September 20, 2026, The International SeaKeepers Society partnered with Sea Experience for a Dive Against Debris cleanup in celebration of International Coastal Cleanup Day! Sea Experience is a dive shop located in Fort Lauderdale that is awarded the PADI Green Star to commemorate their efforts and dedication to conservation and identify them as a dive shop that cares about our coastal environment and actively takes steps to protect it. This month we were joined by 6 volunteer divers who descended with mesh bags and sea snips to remove any trash they found at the dive sites. Our first dive was at the wreck of the Robert Edminster, an artificial reef created from the wreck of a U.S. Coast Guard vessel that sits 45-70 feet under the surface off the coast of Fort Lauderdale. At this site, our volunteers found a lot of debris that was too tangled or overgrown to be removed from the environment, but we were able to ascend with a good amount of rope, cargo straps and aluminum boat parts. After a brief surface interval, we descended again at Willy’s Way, a section of the Florida Reef Tract that sits about 25 feet underwater. While exploring the reef, our volunteers found a lot of fishing line, hooks, lures and weights that were carefully untangled from the coral and sponges on the reef. After surfacing, we collected the debris from all the divers, totalling to over 21 pounds of debris removed directly from the ocean to continue the celebration of International Coastal Cleanup Day. We are so grateful to Sea Experience for their partnership, and to all the divers that helped remove debris, and we look forward to our final dive cleanup of 2026 next month!