Ocean Defenders Alliance is fortunate to have a very special technical diver on our crew in Southern California: Kim Cardenas.
Kim’s first outing with us was on March 25, 2014, when she got to participate in the haul-out of a whopping 600 pounds of abandoned fishing net! What an initiation!
Be sure to click on each image to enlarge!
Since that day, Kim has been a reliable volunteer joining in on the majority of the debris-removal expeditions that take place in So Cal waters. Her presence is always appreciated – she’s fun to be with but also is serious about safety. She’s a technical diver and knows her stuff, and is now an expert in debris-removal, so she’s always helping other less-experienced divers.
Kim says her favorite outings are when the crew finds abandoned lobster traps full of live lobsters and are able to set them free! Her absolute favorite was the day she was called in specifically to help release 30-40 trapped lobsters. We went back to the dock to pick her up. In our original story about the dive, we called her Super Woman and we second that now!! (See the story link below - full of pics!)
Here’s a photo of Kim on another outing returning some critters to their watery home:
Another big expedition was December of 2016, when Kim was one of the main divers who worked to release 400 pounds of squid net. We got some great underwater photos of her preparing the net to be raised to the surface for removal.
In addition to diving with ODA, Kim has enjoyed many recreational dives witnessing the underwater beauty in the coastal waters of seven continents! Her top two dives were: 1) in the Antarctic, seeing penguins coming down to her at 30 feet deep, and 2) diving the World War II wreck of the Thistlegorm in the Red Sea in Egypt at approximately 100-foot depth.
Please enjoy this wonderful video of Kim on a recent debris-removal expedition talking about her experiences with ODA!
Now, if you want to visit some of the stories we talked about above, here are the links:
Kim is called in to help release 30-40 lobsters (with video)
