How many of you would participate in ongoing cleanups?

[ljjames]

thursday's, check!

I'm so stoked! it's just in the baby stages, mind you, and i know it will be a lot of work and organization... but i think it will be worth it!!!

[Berritt]

Let me know if there's any legwork I can help with.

[fnerg]

I'm relatively new, but I'd totally be into helping out with this.

[CaptnJack]

Pull the battery out. Its sulfuric acid (instantly diluted to irrelevant in puget sound) and metallic lead in a plastic case. The acid may or may not have diffused away depending on how the caps are sealed or if there's a crack in the case. Don't get the juice on a nylon drysuit. Save the whole schebang in a 5+ gallon bucket, any auto parts store can accept it free for recycling. Or find a battery specific recycling place in the yellow pages. Its probably worth $4 in lead.

[mcloed121]

I would love to help too just let me know when and were

[drock]

it would be best to leave the ghost nets to the professionals. There's a lot of documentation that goes into finding and removing them, including counting and identifying the remains of animals caught in the nets. I spent a day on a boat with the pros, and underwater with the divers, shooting video of them removing nets, and it's a lot more complicated (and dangerous) than most recreational divers are prepared for.

[ljjames]

it would be best to leave the ghost nets to the professionals. There's a lot of documentation that goes into finding and removing them, including counting and identifying the remains of animals caught in the nets. I spent a day on a boat with the pros, and underwater with the divers, shooting video of them removing nets, and it's a lot more complicated (and dangerous) than most recreational divers are prepared for.

Could you put me in contact with the professionals you worked with?

[dscuba]

What's the latest with cleanups? I, too, would like to participate.

[ljjames]

thanks for your interest! i have been put in connection with some peeps 'in the system' per se for various local orgs amd groups... just getting things sorted out a bit to bring to community at large stay tuned

[CaptnJack]

it would be best to leave the ghost nets to the professionals. There's a lot of documentation that goes into finding and removing them, including counting and identifying the remains of animals caught in the nets. I spent a day on a boat with the pros, and underwater with the divers, shooting video of them removing nets, and it's a lot more complicated (and dangerous) than most recreational divers are prepared for.

Could you put me in contact with the professionals you worked with?

NW Straits Commission oversees this work, they pay the commercial guys.

[ketralis]

Count me in. I help out with my local dive shops basic open water courses sometimes as well, so I'll try to promote cleanups to some of the folks I know who aren't on the board, might be able to get some shops involved as well. I might also know a guy with some connections, not sure, but I'll check and find out. This is a fantastic idea, might be a bit tough with scheduling around my duty days for me, but once we all know what's okay and what's not we could probably start organizing dives for that purpose.

Maybe a training seminar of some sort would be a good idea to get the whole thing running, like a weekend sort of deal, do some classroom training, then have a couple of big group dives for fun and cleanup. What do you think?

It is my opinion that every little bit counts, and the more little bits you get outside of a monthly or quarterly thing, the cleaner our water and sites will be, so I am definitely in. Let me know if there is any other ways I can help!

-Kevin