Dive Against Debris with Sea Experience

Overview

On Saturday, May 3, 2025, The International SeaKeepers Society partnered with Sea Experience for our May Dive Against Debris cleanup. 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 8 volunteer divers who descended with mesh bags and sea snips to remove any trash they found at the dive sites. Due to the Fort Lauderdale Air Show, we deviated from our usual sites, and used our first tank at Donald McAllister wreck, the wreck of a 101-foot tugboat about 60-70 feet deep, sank in 1998 as part of the Broward County Artificial Reef Program. At this site, volunteers collected lots of fishing line and some aluminum cans. When emptying our mesh bags, we discovered a tiny octopus had hitched a ride on some of the debris! We promptly returned the octopus to the water, and the encounter reminded us of the importance of checking marine debris for marine life before disposing of it. We used our second tank at Barracuda Reef, a shallower reef site ranging in depth from 20-30 feet. During this dive, we found more fishing line, lures and weights. Once back on board, we weighed all the trash removed, which came to a total of 3.3 pounds of debris, bringing our total for this year’s dives to 11.8 pounds of trash removed directly from the ocean. We are so grateful for the hard work of all of our volunteer divers, and to Sea Experience and their crew for making these outings possible!