Saturday 11th July 2015
Sea Shepard Wellington organises monthly clean ups of the beach at Evans Bay in Wellington and Dive & Ski HQ Petone like to get 
involved in them as often as possible.
Although only a few divers had put their hands up to get involved in the event there were many people helping to clean up the varying rubbish in the Evans Bay area. Saturday was the perfect day for a dive with a warm sunny day and calm cool water. Only one dive was planned with 3 divers searching a large area of the bay with catch bags to collect as much rubbish as possible. The event was run by myself, Owen, with Claire and Simon getting involved and helping with the event as well.
After the briefing we geared up and headed into the water which was a nice 11 degrees. The dive got off to an interesting start with Claire finding a couch cushion on the first circuit of the search pattern as well as Simon spotting a few tyres that had plenty of marine life on them. Visibility was good and there was plenty to clean up especially as we moved in shore. After about half an hour in the water we surfaced with full catch bags all weighing about 3kg each. As we went through what we had found, including a beer bottle with a baby octopus in it, we had a look at the collection from the land clean up and got a photo with the sea shepherd volunteers.
Overall the event was a success and the conditions were the best they have been for diving in Wellington in months. The small amount of divers who participated did a great job and enjoyed a good day of diving as well as helping to keep the sea pollution free. Thanks to Claire and Simon for making it possible!
