Thanks to Scott at Seattle Dive Tours for the report and photos:

On Saturday, April 27th, Seattle Dive Tours coordinated an underwater clean up at Seacrest Park. 10 divers committed their time to clean up debris found underwater and were able to remove around 100 pounds of debris from our ocean.

West Seattle-based and West Seattle-owned Seattle Dive Tours coordinated the event to help clean up their primary dive site. They used Project Aware’s Dive Against Debris program to provide education and a PADI dive specialty certification that included a short presentation from an environmental scientist. After collection, all the debris was weighed, sorted and cataloged by a volunteer from the University of Washington’s School of Marine and Environmental Affairs.

Project Aware’s Dive Against Debris program collects data from divers and dive businesses around the world to assist in aggregating data of marine debris to better understand this issue confronting our world.

The most interesting item found was a tennis racket while the heaviest item was a car tire. As always, there is always a plethora of plastic spoons found. Previously, Seattle Dive Tours owner Scott Flaherty recovered a McDonald’s coffee stir spoon that hasn’t been produced since the early 1990s. This is just another reminder that plastics do not break down. Sadly, the vast majority of the debris is always found closer to water taxi at the buoy line.