Cleaning up the ocean, one trap at a time...

What a full day! We woke up early to get down to Huntington Beach to volunteer with Ocean Defenders Alliance (www.oceandefenders.org) a non-profit, grassroots marine conservation organization that "strives to make our coastal waters safer for ocean wildlife by removing dangerous man-made objects from the sea floor, especially abandoned commercial fishing gear that poses a threat to marine mammals, fish, invertebrates and reef systems."

Bryan, me, and two other ODA volunteers went out to Newport Beach Harbor, launched the boat, and cruised down the Laguna coast to Wood's Cove. Some divers earlier in the week had tipped us off that there were a couple abandoned fish/lobster traps in the cove with animals stuck in them. Once we arrived, the tide was high and the swells were getting pretty big—but the conditions were good enough to dive! After gearing up, we descended and began our search for the traps. It was really fun, like a treasure hunt, to look for the derelict cages. We swam northwest toward shore, over rocky reefs and huge beds of eelgrass. The surge was really strong (about 2-3 meters), pushing and pulling us through the water—I had to time myself going around the rock outcrops so I wouldn't get crashed into them. The eelgrass was almost hypnotic swaying back and forth in waves with the surge, but also pretty disorienting—I really had to rely on my compass and keep track of my dive buddies, Bryan and Kurt. Even the fish were just moving back and forth with the surge! After about 10-15 minutes of searching, we finally found a big abandoned trap with a few lobsters and lots of other animals stuck in it.Derelict fishing gear continues to trap and kill sea life long after it becomes abandoned by fishermen. Lobster traps often become "lost" when the float line is accidentally cut by a passing boat propeller, or abandoned if the gear becomes snared on the reef. Lost traps, line, and nets can continue to kill lobsters and fish for years if not salvaged and are a threat to the reef system. To get the traps out of the water is no easy task—this one especially. First we had to get it loose from the reef, then we tried to pull out most of the larger animals. We attached a float (works like a parachute), which we filled with air from our secondary regulator. We lifted up the trap until the float took it the rest of the way up to the surface. I can't tell you what a neat feeling I had watching us lift the trap together, then see it continue to rise—we were really cleaning up the ocean! (I know it sounds corny, but it was really cool!)

We then continued our search for another trap, and a few minutes later found a second one. This trap had obviously been down there for a while, as the metal was starting to corrode into very sharp points, we had to be careful not to get stabbed. The trap was a very tricky one to get out because it was caught on a nearby rocky reef structure; we had to cut the lines that were stuck under the rock to get it free. This one was too heavy to float up to the top by itself, so we had to push it up as the float helped us. This trap was full of animals that would've been stuck in there for a long time without ODA's help! A couple octopuses, fish, shrimp, snails, a sea cucumber, urchins, sea stars… We got them all out and hauled the cage up onto the boat. After collecting the other trap that was slowly drifting with the swell to shore, dodging rocks, and pulling the trap to the boat, we finally finished our work! Everything smelled pretty bad—like rotting fish, since some were already dead in the traps.

Once we got back to the boat launch, drove back to Kurt's house, and unloaded our gear into our car, we had no time to waste and drove directly to the Rose Bowl for the UCLA football game. Got there with an hour to spare, met my family, and had fun at the game (UCLA won! Yay!) Tomorrow we're driving down to San Diego for my Dad's 50^th surprise birthday party! (he has no idea!!) Should be fun…