Celebrating World Ocean Day

Author: Sundial

Location: The Splendid Toadfish’s Boat Ramp

Dive: 1 Shore

Dates: 08/06/2024

Scouts: Smokey the Goatfish, Axolotl

Dive Pros: Sgt. Major, The Splendid Toadfish, Queen Trigger, The Mermaid

June 8 is International World Ocean Day, and while we do not have an ocean that we can celebrate here in central Texas the actions we take here can and do impact the ocean. So, to celebrate this World Ocean Day I participated in a Dive Against Debris with the troop. We arrived in the morning at 9:00 to convene before heading down to the water. It was a smaller turnout than usual with me and the two scouts doing their Dive Against Debris training but despite this, we were not deterred. My family had come along, and while they are not divers they planned to swim and help. After setting up our gear we headed down to the water where we would all get in our wetsuits or sharkskins to combat the chill of Lake Travis and descend. 

I was buddied with Sgt. Major because I was the only scout who was not doing the Dive Against Debris Certification. We set out on the dive with two goals, to set the float, and pick up our share of the trash. After descending and setting the float we followed the shoreline at about 40 feet. The visibility was 3 feet so we stuck close together and I got out my light so that I could see trash. At first, I didn’t see much trash, but as we got deeper into the cove old trash started to appear in the form of glass bottles and cans. Sgt. Major found probably 4 fishing poles on the dive and we both helped gather fishing line. Because of how low the lake is, a lot of the trash is old. Boat docks that collapsed long ago into the water lay in ruin and a lot of the trash is much too big for us, even with lift bags. Due to the poor visibility, and the silt that clouded the water when we picked up trash, I almost lost my buddy a few times, but we found each other each time. 

When we made it back to the float line Sgt. Major put some trash there so he could come back for it and we continued past the line to gather more trash. I found a line of rope, and although I was disappointed it was not tied to an anchor we gathered it along with other trash as we went back to the line and ascended after our hour of diving. After coming back to the surface we got out of the water and assessed our collection of trash. Despite the amount of people that were there, we succeeded in picking up a lot of trash. We packed up all the trash into one of the cars and brought it back to our meeting place so that we could count it. PADI Aware has a program to log trash picked up by divers that helps them with research and creating legislation to help the environment. While I was not able to stay and count the trash with the other scouts it is a very important step in helping our environment so that better legislation can be made. 

So even though we live nowhere near the ocean, we were able to celebrate World Ocean Day and help to keep our ocean clean by participating in Debris Diving activities; but this is not just for divers. The ocean provides for all of us, and we would not exist without it. We must protect the ocean! This can be done in many ways. Some examples are buying seafood from sustainable fisheries, picking up trash on land and in the water, reducing your carbon footprint, and supporting legislation that protects the ocean. The ocean has given us so much so it is time to give back and say thank you to our wonderful ocean.