KANEOHE (KHON2) — It’s tiring work. On a day like Sunday, Hawaii’s pristine conditions make for crystal-clear blue water, but underneath that ideal view is a mass of junk at Heeia Kea Small Boat Harbor in Kaneohe.
Tires were the most plentiful and heaviest culprit, some of them large enough to fit onto a monster truck. In total 110 tires were removed weighing a thumping 7,200 pounds.
They were removed by Ocean Defenders Alliance, which puts on these dives with the goal of working toward clean and healthy marine ecosystems. This is the third time they have done a cleanup in Kaneohe in two years.
“First time we found 40 tires, second time which was last January we removed 69,” ODA Founder and President Kurt Lieber said.
ODA’s highly skilled divers hopped in and used 150 pounds lift bags to get the tires and other debris to the surface.
“Once you get it to the surface and get it to the ramp, from there everyone hauls it up from the top side,” ODA diver Glenn Roberts said.
The Heeia Kea Harbor Master told ODA on Sunday morning that eight of the tires were dumped Saturday night.
“There’s been a lot of dumping going on and the tires leach chemicals into the water. And there’s really rare coral in Kaneohe Bay,” Roberts said.
Lieber wants folks to know how destructive tires and other junk can be to Hawaii’s oceanic ecosystem.
“The frustrating thing is they don’t understand what damage this stuff does. They think ‘it costs me $25 to pay to have a tire dumped, to put in the dump where it’s cheaper to just dump it here,'” Lieber said.
According to the Rubber Manufacturers Association, making one standard car tire takes 7 gallons of oil.
“There’s over 200 chemicals that go into making a tire. All of those chemicals are leaching into the water over time and it’s killing the coral and it’s damaging the habitat,” Lieber said.
It’s not just the tires they’re worried about, ODA also removed lots of fishing lines and other debris Sunday.
“The fishing line is really problematic, we’ve seen honu (turtle) entangled in them and they can die,” Lieber said.
Once all the rubbish was pulled out of the ocean, it was wheeled out, put on a truck and taken to H-Power. The job may have been completed for the day, but it’s not over.
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“As we keep doing this it’s going to take a lot more of these to get them out,” Roberts said.