By Kay Cooper, ODA North Hawai’i Island Coordinator

There’s no shortage of Aloha spirit here on the Big Island of Hawai’i with so many volunteers continuing to join in with Ocean Defenders Alliance (ODA) to help keep our ocean and shoreline clean!

This cleanup at Kawaihae South Harbor with our partners Kohala Divers was on February 11, 2024, Super Bowl Sunday, which shows the true dedication of our volunteers to arrive and collect a large amount of rubbish from the ocean!

To give you some context, here's a map of the island showing you where the harbor is (see the red pin):

And here's an aerial shot of the entire area:

Kawaihae South Harbor - photo credit marinas.com

This is the second cleanup we have done at Kawaihae South Harbor, the largest harbor in the north of the island, and absolutely the busiest!! 

Here's another shot that zeroes in exactly on where we did the cleanup:

A lot of organization went into preparing for this dive with signs being posted a week in advance around the harbor, emails being sent for approval from the DLNR, and promotional messages posted on social media spreading the word around the island to invite people to help make this cleanup safe and successful!

Our volunteers and ODA team this day were: Noah Brown, Casey Campbell, Juan Chacin, Susan Ciabolino, Dave Conn, Carl Cooper, Josh Cooper, Jacques Delormes, Garth Edwards, Kerry Edwards, Mark England, Lucas Fuhrma, Chris Gallello, Todd Hackett, Laura Jim, Jeff Milisen, Sarah Milisen (ODA Hawai’i Island Chapter Leader), James Sturz, Brian Sward, Curtis VanZandt, Tony White, Marjorie Zensen, and me (Kay Cooper).

ODA Ocean Cleanup Orientation with Kay (in red) and Sarah (in navy blue hoody).

Our cleanup began with an in-depth briefing discussing the layout of the cleanup, safety, time underwater, when to ask for lift bags, and the important role of our shore support team!

We had a kayak in the water thanks to our longtime ODA volunteers Mark England and Marjorie Zensen, to watch for SCUBA divers air bubbles, watch for boat traffic, and offer support to the divers when needed by attaching netting or lines to the kayak and supplying a lift bag when needed. We knew from our first cleanup at this site that it’s very busy with boat traffic, so this “security kayak” was a large and important role on this day for safety. Thank you, Mark, for volunteering to man the kayak and protect our divers as boaters were passing! Not to mention the great tan you got!

Our amazing shore support team not only cleaned up lots of rubbish throughout the rocks, along the shore and parking lots, but also helped exchange full rubbish bags from the divers with empty bags. They ran back and forth from our staging area to empty the bags, retrieve tow lines and a wheelbarrow for the heavier items, and supply more lift bags to our divers in the water! 

We had some shore support walk along the break wall to meet divers in the water with large hauls such as tires, buoys, and even a channel marker!! Larger nets, line, and a buoy were brought up and attached to the back of Mark’s kayak and he towed them into shore where our team lifted the items out of the water and wheeled them back to the staging area. There was a lot of plastic, fishing line, and bottles throughout the break wall and in between rocks that could have easily ended up back into our ocean with the next large swell. We got it all just in time!

Our divers worked hard, in teams, to diligently floss out fishing line from coral, shake out bottles and cans from sand, dislodge lead weights and lures, and lift up heavy tires from the bottom.

As our ocean team spread out in the harbor, reports came in of more tires that needed to be lifted, large metal pipes, a metal propeller from a boat, a heavy chain, large metal bars, a brake drum from a car, a plastic ladder from the back of a boat, two fenders, and about 50 feet of cable! Our hard-working shore support helped by removing it all from the ocean and carting it back with a wheelbarrow.

We also removed about 200+ feet of rope (about 10 pieces total, different thickness and lengths), about 400 feet of fishing line, a plastic basket, a large plastic net, 2 golf balls, 2 fishing lures, 25 plastic fragments, clothing, 5 glass bottles, 10 aluminum cans, 26 lead sinkers, 3 tires, rubber gloves, and a mask strap! All of the debris removed from the ocean was sorted, written down, and pictures taken to be cataloged.

There are not many commercial vessels that operate in the North End of the Big Island so a lot of private boat owners, private small business boaters, and local fishermen use the South Harbor for their daily boating and fishing, so this harbor sees quite a bit of activity every day. Kayakers and canoe clubs also will launch out of this harbor, so it is rarely touched by cleanup crews yet so desperately needed. We had a lot of support from the local community seeing our team in the water working hard to remove the debris with appreciation for looking out for the safety and protection of marine life and their habitats and the quality of the adjacent land as well.

We are truly seeing ODA presence, recognition, and volunteer interest grow in the north part of the Big Island from the local community and also with many people just vacationing here as well! We will continue to do what we can to promote conservation by spreading awareness and taking a hands-on approach to making a difference to our ‘Aina (land) and Kai (ocean).

Thank you to all our volunteers who came and worked hard on Super Bowl Sunday! Your dedication and positive attitudes are truly inspiring!

Keep your eyes and ears open for more future cleanups heading your way! Feel free to email ODA to the attention of Sarah or Kay if there are any questions about cleanups or more ways you can get involved! Thank you for taking time to read about our continued efforts! Aloha and Mahalo!