Women's Dive Day Cleanup with Sea Experience and FDEP
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
July 20, 2024
Overview
On July 20, 2024, The International SeaKeepers Society partnered with Sea Experience and Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to host our monthly dive cleanup in Fort Lauderdale to celebrate Women’s Dive Day. Sea Experience is our partner dive shop 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. Our full boat of 14 volunteers was joined by Lara Bracci, Land Based Sources of Pollution Coordinator at FDEP, who introduced our dive cleanup, gave out supplies to our volunteers, and reported our findings to Southeast Florida Action Network (SEAFAN). Our dive sites were Hog Heaven, the wreck of a 180-foot barge about 60-70 feet deep, intentionally sunk in 1986 as part of the Florida Artificial Reef Program, and The Caves, a shallower reef site ranging in depth from 20-30 feet, named for its small caves. Despite popular belief, even offshore wrecks and reefs are prone to building up high quantities of trash, particularly thick fishing line and discarded items tossed from passing boats. This accumulation of trash and plastics will not only never break down over time, but also damages the health of the marine ecosystem as well as has the potential to create dead zones of limited oxygen which our corals and nearly all other species need to survive. This makes our efforts to remove trash from not just shorelines, but in the pelagic environment critical for our oceans’ health. By the end of both dives, we set a new record for total weight of trash removed at nearly 30 pounds! We give a huge thank you to our amazing volunteers for joining us in celebrating Women’s Dive Day and to Sea Experience and their incredible team for hosting us, and to FDEP for co-leading the cleanup.
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