September 3, 2022.
7 AM…
Sun is shining, the conditions are… immaculate.
Flat calm ocean with the sun kissing the horizon as it greets the day.
We are so grateful because earlier in the week, the weather man was calling for 3-4 foot seas!
Goes to show that sometimes you just have to wait and see what happens.
We want to take this time to thank all of our sponsors including 4OCEAN, Oceanic, Lucky Fish…
With a special shout-out to the City of Pompano Beach for approving and helping us coordinate this event!
Thank you to the following vendors: Loggerhead Marine Center, ZooKeeper, Brownie’s Third Lung, Broward Sheriff’s Office, Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation, Coral Reef Conservation Program (DEP), Marine Environmental Education Center (MEEC), South Florida Wildlife Center, Friends of Our Florida Reefs, Boca Save Our Beaches, Sassy Spines Lionfish Jewelry, Sea Turtle Oversight Protection, Right to Clean Water, Stoked on Salt, and Bang Energy.
Huge thank you to our raffle sponsors: Big Blue Lights, Brownie’s Third Lung, ZooKeeper, Diver’s Alert Network (DAN), Fourth Element, Lucky Fish, Oceanic, DRYFOB, Stream2Sea, Coral Reef Alliance, International Game Fish Association (IGFA), Friends of Our Florida Reefs, Marine Environment Education Center (MEEC), and PADI.
Keep reading to learn more about the first of many Pompano Pier Clean-ups with DXDIVERS.
Day Of Overview
The beautiful day was soon eclipsed by the rumbling of cars, people chit chatting, and announcements.
Hundreds of people soon filled the space in front of the pier next to the restaurant Lucky Fish.
Divers signing waivers, grabbing event shirts, setting up gear…
All the usual happenings of a Pier Clean-up with DXDIVERS.
Soon freedivers, snorkelers, and scuba divers will be headed towards the water on a mission to collect debris off a pier that hasn’t been cleaned in years.
Volunteers assumed their positions on the pier, on the beach, and at the booths to help in any way they can.
As we do at the Deerfield Beach Annual Pier Clean-up, we brought our specially designed sinking buckets…
(Buckets with holes drilled into them to allow for sinking)
To gather the hundreds of pounds of debris lingering on the Pompano Beach Pier.
Divers emerged from the water carrying oddities like PVC pipes, boat ladders, railings…
More on all that later.
At 11:15 am, the raffle winners were announced.
Thanks to our raffle sponsors, we were able to give away more than $1750 worth of prizes in the form of gear, raffle bundles, and gift cards!
You may be wondering how many people came out for this event…
Well the numbers are in…
511 total divers, volunteers, and support staff helped clean Pompano Beach Pier!
Debris Round Up
1000.9 POUNDS.
Yes, you read that right!
With a collective team effort, we all helped remove over a thousand pounds of trash from the ocean!
4OCEAN collected most of the debris with help from Loggerhead Marine Life Center, and other organizations helping to sort.
Divers found some interesting trash including…
Plates, knives, pieces of an urn, a car tire, metal railings, a traffic cone, a beach chair…
And so much more!
Not to mention the hundreds of miles of monofilament fishing line, lures, lead weights, and other fishing debris that covered the pilings.
At DXDIVERS, we’re excited to continue to clean-up Deerfield Beach Pier and Pompano Beach Pier for years to come!
You know we had to make it official…
Find out how we adopted Pompano Pier!
Adopt the Blue
Have you heard of PADI’s Adopt the Blue program?
PADI’s publicly funded, global nonprofit, Project AWARE has great programs to get dive shops and divers involved with conservation.
PADI and Project AWARE are on a mission to create the world’s largest network of underwater sites for conservation action.
Their goal: 10,000 sites by 2025.
The philosophy is to think local, act global.
From the PADI website, local action includes:
- Participate in underwater citizen science
- Lobby and advocate local governments
- Support in-country projects and campaigns
- Volunteer for conservation events
Global action initiates the following:
- Network of 10,000 sites
- Ability to scale conservation work
- Economic voice at the international table
- Driven by a global movement of divers
The main goal of the program is to accelerate the pathway to Marine Protected Area (MPA) status for sites that are relevant for protection and conservation - according to PADI’s Adopt the Blue FAQ.
Part of the “Adopt the Blue” program is for adopters to conduct Dive Against Debris surveys and other citizen science programs at the site.
There is also a commitment to participating in campaigns and actions that lead to conservation efforts regarding the site.
If you would like to learn more about PADI & Project AWARE’s Adopt the Blue program, click here.
Keep that Enthusiasm!
It’s important for us to hold these events and for divers like you to participate…
But it’s even more important to show up to the small conservation efforts to help protect the oceans we hold so dearly.
One of our main core values at DXDIVERS is conservation.
As divers, it’s our duty to protect the ocean and its inhabitants at all costs, so us and future generations get the chance to witness the beauty.
We regularly hold conservation events like reef cleans with 4OCEAN…
Lionfish derbies to protect our local reefs from this hungry, yet tiny beast…
And regularly schedules Trashy Friday dives to encourage divers to collect debris on their dives!
We hope you come for the diving, but stay to make a greater difference…
For yourself. For your fellow divers. For the planet.
Are there any conservation events we should add in 2023?
Let us know in the comments below!
Happy diving!