Dive Against Debris with Sea Experience

On Sunday, October 11, 2026, The International SeaKeepers Society partnered with Sea Experience for our last Dive Against Debris cleanup of 2026. Sea Experience is a dive shop located in Fort Lauderdale that is awarded the PADI Green Star to commemorate their 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 7 volunteer divers who descended with mesh bags and sea snips to remove any trash they found at the dive sites. We first descended at Hog Heaven, the wreck of a 180-foot barge about 60-70 feet deep, where we removed lots of cargo straps and bunches of tangled fishing line. Our second stop was The Caves, a shallower reef site ranging in depth from 20-30 feet named for its small caves. As usual, we found many pieces of fishing line stretching along the reef, some with hooks and lures attached, and worked diligently to untangle them from hard and soft coral without damaging the reef. We were pleased to see less trash than usual at our sites today, and our efforts were rewarded with six nurse shark sightings, as well as a large green moray eel. In total, our team of volunteer divers removed three pounds of trash directly from the ocean, helping to improve water quality and reduce the risk of debris entanglement or ingestion for marine life. We had a blast partnering with Sea Experience for another successful year of Dive Against Debris cleanups, and are proud to announce that we recruited 47 divers who removed 73.5 pounds of trash from Fort Lauderdale reefs and dive sites in 2026! We look forward to partnering with Sea Experience again in 2027 with monthly Dive Against Debris cleanups resuming in March.