THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 27, 1996 TAG: 9609250135
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BARBARA J. WOERNER, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 69 lines
Tangled fishing lines, muddy Styrofoam cups and dripping pieces of soggy timber were among the ``booty'' uncovered by divers Saturday at First Landing/Seashore State Park.
They were participating in International Coastal Cleanup Day, a worldwide event, which takes place annually for three hours on the third Saturday in September. It is coordinated by the Center for Marine Conservation, a non-profit organization based in Washington, dedicated to protecting marine wildlife and habitats and preserving coastal resources. The group sponsors the event in order to enlist citizen involvement in the removal and collection of debris from shorelines, waterways and beaches.
Statewide, the event is called the Virginia Waterways Cleanup Day. Among the local efforts, area dive clubs joined together for the first time in a volunteer effort at the First Landing/Seashore State Park and boat ramp off 64th Street to clean up the submerged trash and debris from a portion of Broad Bay. Mid-Atlantic Divers Dive Club, Sea-Tech Dive Club, Chesapeake Bay Dive Club and Lynnhaven Dive Center were represented among the participants. Free air for tanks was supplied by Dan's Dive Center and Mid-Atlantic Dive Center.
``This is our first volunteer project,'' said Suzanne Marion, project coordinator and member of the Mid-Atlantic Divers club. ``We're helping to take care of our waterways by doing this and if we don't take care of them, we're not going to have good places to go.
``We enjoy being underwater so why not volunteer for this,'' she added.
Chief park ranger and interpreter John Elliott closed one side of the boat ramp to ensure safe entry for the 22 participants whether they were diving, keeping an eye out for those under water, categorizing the debris or doing shore cleanup. While jet-skis and boats crowded one side of the ramp, Elliott and dive club participants stood on the end of the pier watching the air bubbles that rose to the surface and making sure that boats and divers did not cross paths.
``The park's involvement in things like this is mainly concern for the environment and to provide a place for interested citizens to join a clean-up effort,'' Elliott said. ``We provide a point of entry for the divers.''
He emphasized that volunteers are always welcome to help maintain the park.
``We try to impress upon people the importance of practicing stewardship in this park - this is their resource,'' he added. ``Volunteerism is a great way to do it.''
As divers delivered the trash and debris - some of it dripping with mud or crusted with shells - it was counted and recorded on a data collection card provided by the Center for Marine Conservation and deposited in a pile to be weighed.
Alexia Austin busily recorded the articles brought to shore by her husband, Will, and son, Todd, who were both part of the diving detail. She sorted tangled fishline with weights attached, rebar, a pulley and other assorted unidentified objects brought up from the muddy bottom.
``We love diving and we do it as a family,'' she said. ``You can never have enough diving experience and we thought it was important to come today.''
By the end of the three-hour cleanup, 425 pounds of debris had been pulled from the muddy bottom of Broad Bay. Large pieces of timber, pieces of aluminum conduit, Styrofoam cups, broken tools, cans and tangled monofilament line were among the articles retrieved.
``It was a successful cleanup,'' said Marion. ``Getting 425 pounds of trash out of the waterway is definitely a positive move for the environment.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
As divers like Nelson Barger delivered the trash and debris to
volunteers like Billy Morgan - some of it dripping with mud or
crusted with shells - it was counted and recorded by other
volunteers like Suzanne Marian, coordinator of the event, and Alexia
Austin. by CNB