On Saturday, July 14, 2007, an enthusiastic group of 46 persons consisting of divers, snorkelers, and shore support met at the Dive Friends Bonaire Yellow Submarine location to clean the house-reef.

An unusual component of this group is that nearly half was made up of visiting tourists, which is a much higher percentage than normal. The visitors melded with the “locals” into one great group, which then split into two groups to scour the underwater terrain and shoreline going either north or south of the Yellow Submarine facility.

In a comprehensive briefing by Susan Davis of NetTech, the divers were informed of the requirements of the Bonaire National Marine Park in that no gloves are allowed during cleanups. Additionally, they were advised to act as their own police—not to get too caught up in bringing up every piece of trash from the bottom—if the trash had become colonized by corals, hydroids, or other organisms, the cleaners were expected to leave the trash in place. Only new trash without any sort of marine encrustation or animal inhabitation was to be fully checked, and only then brought to the surface.

Shore duty and Critter Control was ably handled by Bonaire’s own REEF expert, Linda Ridley, who demonstrated to others working shore support how to responsibly check the trash once it had been brought up: The trash had to be immediately checked to be sure no marine animals had been inadvertently included, and in which case when animals were found, they were immediately returned to the ocean.

Another important factor of shore duty is to sort the trash, count it, and then dispose of it all in a safe manner. Although it had been only six months since this area was last cleaned, it did yield a surprising amount of new trash which could be removed. Some of this trash included bags, bottles, rope, fishing net, strapping bands, cups, fast-food containers and other packaging pieces, over 70 pieces of glass, including some fiberglass, nearly 80 metal pieces, 16 pieces of rubber, and 33 pieces of paper and paper products.

Some of the more unusual trash included four batteries, a pair of sunglasses, 3 cans of paint, and 35 pieces of clothing!

After the dive, all participants and their families were welcomed back for a Pot Luck BBQ—Dive Friends Bonaire and NetTech, the sponsors of the quarterly Bonaire cleanups, provided drinks and main courses, while participants supplied side dishes.

Images from this cleanup are available online at the Bonaire Insider Photo Gallery at http://www.bonaireinsider.com/index.php/gallery_bonaire/category/C33/.

The next cleanup dive organized by Dive Friends Bonaire and NetTech will take place on Saturday, September 15,and will be conducted in coordination with World Cleanup Day and Bonaire’s Love Our Planet Week. Members from CORAL and the North American office of the Tourist Board will be on-hand to add their assistance. All those on Bonaire at that time are welcome to join in. Meet at Dive Friend’s Yellow Submarine facility at 1:00 PM.