"Reel it in for the Reefs" - An Epic Collaboration among the Palm Beach Dive Community

The Kyalami Scuba Club was proud to partner with The National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation on this incredible clean-up extravaganza. We are also strong partners with the Clean Earth Challenge, The National Wildlife Federation and Johnson Outdoors.

The Kyalami Scuba Club recently helped to lead a large-scale clean-up dive, specifically addressing the issue of discarded fishing line that is all too often seen at our favorite dive sites in Palm Beach. Titled “Reel it in for the Reefs” this unprecedented event was put together with the generous sponsorship of the National Save the Sea Turtle Foundation. In total, 8 different dive boats offered free spots to 150 locals who wanted to volunteer their time to come out and help us clean the reefs in honor of both Earth Day and the upcoming turtle nesting season. 

A small sampling of the marine debris collected. Proud that the Scuba Club brought back the biggest haul out of the Palm Beach area boats!

As a local diver here, I have to say I have never seen anything quite like it. I was immensely proud to be a part of an effort that collectively brought up 725 pounds of marine debris! It was such a beautiful sight to see the dive community come together to protect what we all love. No competition, no rivalries - just an absolutely amazing day of hard work with an incredibly fulfilling outcome. 

Diver Christina works carefully to remove fishing line wrapped around the reef. Discarded fishing line poses a significant threat to our sea turtles currently migrating here for nesting season as they can easy get entangled. We recently helped sea turtle Bella get unwrapped from line and rushed her to the hospital; unfortunately, she had to have her fin amputated from the injury. See my previous blog for the full story on Bella.

Spots filled up quickly on all the boats, and it left many who wanted to help without a spot to dive. This prompted me to take a minute here to share how you can make EVERY dive a clean-up dive!

Can you spot the fishing line wrapped around this beautiful section of artificial reef? Why not take every opportunity to help protect and preserve our Mother Ocean by making every dive a clean-up dive!

For starters, the 1st thing I tell anyone who wants to help clean-up the reef is that it is not necessarily for beginners. While I never want to discourage a newly certified, very enthusiastic diver (we need all the ocean stewards we can get!) -  there is the very real possibility that someone well-meaning but inexperienced can do more harm than good to the reef - or even worse, to themselves!

Advanced diver Isabelle expertly hides from the current as she works her way through this tangled mesh of fishing line, carefully removing the rusty hooks before placing in her mesh bag.

Some considerations . . . we tend to see the greatest accumulation of fishing line around artificial reefs and wrecks. These are havens for fish, and fishermen know it - making them easy targets. The challenges with diving our wrecks is they are deeper than our reefs - meaning you'll go through your air quicker and risk running into deco if you’re not careful. They also tend to have more current, meaning proper weighting and buoyancy control is critical so you’re not blown off the wreck.

One additional challenge that should be mentioned is the consideration of marine behavior. Diver Anna was clearing out some fishing line when a massive moray became irritated. As you can see in this photo, it attempted to lunge at her leg! Luckily, she was working in a buddy pair and her partner alerted her to the potential danger.

Essential supplies are gloves, a cutting tool and a mesh bag. 3 items you can easily add to your kit bag - come see us at the shop if you need any advice on which to select and we can get you all set-up. 

Another piece of kit you can consider is a canister with a secure lid that easily drains water. We use these to secure rusty hooks that inevitably get caught in mesh bags and can be dangerous. You can make these out of many different objects, but one of our favorites is to reuse old prescription medicine bottles. As you can see below, it easily clips to your BCD for ease of use.

Once you have your dive skills honed in and your supplies readily available, you can easily help make a difference by collecting marine debris each time you come out with us. Want to learn more about how to help in a responsible manner? Sign up for our Dive Against Debris course - a specialty course taught by our awesome instructors. They will go even deeper into how to collect all sorts of debris and you can even learn how to share the data with the scientific community to make your impact even greater. 

Our Divemaster Sydney carefully captures the details of the marine debris we collected to share with the scientific community. Debris Free Oceans has been a great partner to us, even providing us with data sheets to make the process smoother.

Kyalami instructor Meme helps teach our Dive Against Debris specialty courses - you’ll typically find her with her ocean clean-up bag nearby!

Hope to see you out with us soon - perhaps with a Scubapro clean-up bag attached to your BCD!

Safe Diving, 

Grace