Dive Report: Sat 9/20/03 9 AM Commercial Pier Clean Up with Ocean Watch

The day was PERFECT for a clean up. I've tried to dive Commercial pier itself for 2 years and this was the first time I could get in the water! I'm proud to be a member of Ocean Watch and thank them for organizing the Commercial Pier and Lauderdale by the Sea beach clean up.

Photos:
http://www.geocities.com/tiswango/0920owclean/

Team: Andrea and Matt

Temp: 85
Water Temp: 84
Seas: 1 ft
Surge: minimal
Visibility: 35ft
Gas:32%
Depth: 12ft
Bottom Time: 1 hour 42 minutes

Andrea and I showed up a little after 8 AM and got a rock star parking meter near the pier. Hauling the gear around wasn't worth the free parking offer a block away so I plugged some quarters. We had breakfast at Mulligans and came back to find several members of the PBCRRT had also shown up for the clean up. Ocean Watch gave a good briefing on dangerous sea life (Scorpionfish and Jellyfish), entanglement and rusty fishing hooks, and falling buckets as potential hazards while diving and cleaning the pier. There was also a display board with all this information clearly listed out. I was impressed!

We geared up and hit the water. The pier was cleaned three months earlier and wasn't disgusting, but there was still a lot of fishing line down there. We picked a set of pilings in 12ft of water and went to work on the reef on the northside. After gathering up piles of line, I surfaced and called for a bucket to haul this stuff up and away. The bucket people on the pier were quick and responsive. Next we went to work on the pilings. There were big balls of line, weights, and hooks at the base. Then I would pull line off the piling and it would unwrap and magically appear from the growth that was covering it. Line in the left hand and sea snips in the right I hacked away like Edward Scissor hands at the monofilament.

After working for 45 minutes I went up again with another bucket load. After getting rid of it, I couldn't clear my ears at 6 ft. I blew solid breaths without trying to force it. I surfaced again, took my reg out, blew my nose, and swallow a couple of times. Once I could clear my right ear on the surface I headed down again. Next stop was cleaning the south side of the pier. There were several large coral heads under the pier which surprised me. I thought it would be more torn up.

Some other divers came by while we were cleaning. One had a light and console clipped off, but still dangling 8 inches below him. It banged into the Brian Coral head and I made some comments through my regulator and lifted the diver up. As the diver turned to apologize his knees dropped and hit the coral again with his fins! Arrrrggg! I lifted him up again and pushed him over to the hard bottom. He swam off from there.

After an hour and 10 minutes of cleaning, we were down to 1000 psi and decided to take a tour around the pier. We swam through a school of a 100 Look downs. There were bait fish all around us and they were schooling close hoping the hungry jacks, Horseeye, Blue Runner, and Yellow wouldn't charge close to us. At the end of the pier we found 30 or so Snook in the 3ft to 5ft range. Beautiful! I also found a sealed box of remains. People, please remember what ever you throw in the water at the end of the pier will stay there or wash back up on shore. I really like the idea of having my ashes scattered in the ocean, but besides being illegal, people are not doing it right! Don't make more of a mess for someone to clean up later.

We climbed out of the water with a big smile on our face! Pier clean-ups also offer bragging rights to the more creative item found under the pier. Will won with a gun! The barrel wasn't attached, but Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) was notified to come over and take a look. They wanted us to get back in and find the barrel, but it was close to Noon and the pier needed to re-open to fishing. Andrea and I headed home with a warm feeling of accomplishment.

--Matt