Dania Beach Pier Cleanup

Dania Beach Pier

Last Sunday a group of us headed over to Dania Beach to help with the pier cleanup that our local dive shop, Divers Cove, sponsored.  We were so fortunate that it was nice sunny day with absolutely no rain...which is saying a lot for a June day in Florida!  

Time to get ready

I was absolutely amazed at how much junk we found down there.  Of course I expected to find the fishing lines, hooks, and weights but why someone would dump car batteries, tools, or the little plastic bags you get at the grocery store is beyond me.  We as a society really need to put in a little more effort to make sure that our oceans are clean not only for the sea life but so we can enjoy in safe day at the beach.  I mean really - who wants to go to the beach and step on glass.  Okay...I will get off my soap box and fill you in on what a nice time we had.  

Dania Beach Pier Cleanup

I was able to convince some of my friends who are not divers to join us in the clean up so while the divers & kayakers were in the water they were topside picking up trash from the beach and waiting on the divers to pass up the buckets and mesh bags.  I was very impressed to see how smoothly and organized the event ran.  They had people in kayaks helping out with the trash removal and to assist any diver that needed help. Now while you can't normally dive under the fishing pier it was a really nice dive spot and there was an abundance of life.  We saw small stingrays, tangs, nurse sharks, and more.  The only downside of the dive was that the visibility sucked!  We had probably 10' of visibility and of course every time we picked up trash we moved the sand around and scared off the fish so I had to keep telling myself - we're here to clean not just to dive.  But.... it was very hard to stay on task because all I wanted to do was look around and see what new fish I could spot and take a picture.  Note to self...do not take a camera down when your main objective is to pick up trash.

Dania Beach

The good thing about activities like the cleanup (of course other than being socially and environmentally conscious...) is that you talk to other divers and get the opportunity to ask them what their favorite dive spots are so next weekend I'll be heading up to the West Palm area and dive the Blue Heron Bridge - and this time I'll actually be able to take pictures!

So...Diveonauts Dive!

Written by:  Rick Suarez, June 13, 2012