Splash for Trash!

Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2007 8:16 pm

Hey, we've survived 2 close calls by cat 5 hurricanes so far this year. Well, granted Felix made a left turn into Honduras and I feel so bad for those people. That's the worst part of hurricane season; you don't want it to hit your home, but you don't want it to hit anybody else's home either. Now, feeling thankful for surviving Dean and we only expect a mild tidal surge from Felix, XTC Dive Center has a new idea (OK, actually I stole the title, but not the idea, from Aquanauts but we aren't charging, our program is free).

“Splash for Trash!” (Thank you Aquanauts for the cool slogan)

Normally at this time of year XTC Dive Center participates in Clean Up the World Weekend. This year we decided to do something special due to the amount of trash washed into the Caribbean during Hurricane Dean.

Any certified divers who will be in the Xcalak area from Sept 14 to 21 can dive for free—as long as they are willing to pick up trash along the way. Many people are familiar with Xcalak’s famous trench, La Poza, where hundreds of huge tarpon and other fish are schooling at this time of year. This trench also tends to fill with trash from shore after extremely high tides or severe weather. XTC Dive Center is going to work with the Parque Nacional Arrecifes de Xcalak (PNAX) staff to identify the areas most in need of clean up. The biologists will issue specific instructions to our divemasters and to our guests as to which types of trash should and should not be removed. An old tire that has been encrusted with coral and is now a habitat for a multitude of tiny sea creatures needs to be left behind, even a beer can that has been on the bottom for a while needs to be gently emptied of any current inhabitants. Our hope is to clean up as much as possible and leave only bubbles! This can be a great learning experience for divers of any level. And it will certainly be a huge benefit to the wonderful reefs in Xcalak.

In the event of rough weather, clean up efforts will be conducted on micro-dives inside the fringing reef at depths of 6 to 10 ft.

If you have a mesh dive bag, please bring it! We will also supply as many as possible, but this will be a necessary piece of equipment for the project. Gloves are normally prohibited in the marine park but we have requested an exemption for this project. If you don't have dive gloves, don't try to pick up broken glass. We want this to be a safe, fun, ecologic adventure.

Also, if anyone is willing to do some beach combing for trash the XTC staff will be available to do trash pick-ups at designated locations.

Please sign up in advance by contacting info@xtcdivecenter.com.

Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2007 6:30 pm

Update!

Please email us if you are interested in participating in the "Splash for Trash" program. We'll have a special introductory period of 9 days (we extended it so more CONAP and SEMARNAT employees could participate) from Sept 14 to 23, SEMARNAT, the Mexican version of an aquatic EPA, is joining XTC in training divers to clean up the reef and leave only bubbles. Amoung other educational programs, we will also have a special clinic on lifting heavy objects with lift bags and/or how to mark heavy objects with bouys for boat picks pick ups. (Date to be announced depending on weather.) You can see all the details on the Splash for Trash thread which will be updated periodically with the weekend that we will dedicate to the program each month after the initial trial and training period.

Please come help us clean up all the trash that washed into the ocean during the hurricanes! Bioligists regularly tell us that Xcalak is the healthiest windward area of the Mesoamerican Reef, second largest barrier reef in the world. We want to keep it that way. Hurricanes are a natural part of the reef cycle; I've seen the wonders of regrowth after bad hurricane years in the Xcalak area. In areas where there is high pollution, the reef can't recover. We are asking for every willing diver or snorkeler in the area to participate in this program, dive fees and marine park entrance fees will be waived if you participate. Advanced divers will be allowed to use gloves and knives. We also just ordered a bunch of plastic tongs from Canada for removing small pieces of trash from the reef without causing any additional damage.

Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 3:20 pm

Last night I received a great report from Alejandro on the first day of Splash for Trash, they started early with all the XTC staff doing training dives with the biologists so they could learn the best methods of gathering trash w/out damaging the reef. One thing that was interesting to me was that a lot of the trash they collected from Poza Rica (in front of Sandwood, Sin Duda, and Playa Sonrisa) was organic, as in palm fronds and other pieces of vegetation that got washed out into the ocean during the tidal surge. It never occurred to me that organic trash could be just as destructive to the coral as plastics, glass, metal, and wood.

Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:58 am

Alejandro, who many of you know as our #1 divemaster for the last 6 years and our manager for the last year, came up with the brilliant idea of getting orange bags in Limones instead of buying expensive dive bags. It has turned out to be an excellent economical way to provide all divers with a collection bag.

Organic Debris

Palm fronds belong on the beach, not on the reef!

Picking between the cracks, we could only find aluminum tongs here in Mexico but CBA is sending a load of plastic tongs from IKEA for use in picking trash out from between small crevasses in the coral.

Look Ma, a bag of sticks! But believe it or not, all those sticks and other pieces of organic waste are emitting chemicals that are toxic and can kill the coral.

Team Work

Team Work 2

Muchisimas Gracias to Maricarmen Garcia, director of Semarnat for Xcalak and Chinchorro for the education and assistence in getting this project off the ground. And thanks to all the volunteer recreational divers who have committed to spend their vacations Splashing for Trash. So far several boat loads of organic and inorganic waste have been recovered and removed.

Don't forget that if you are in the area and wish to do beach combing and/or snorkeling for trash, we will supply all the materials and transport the waste to the proper location.

Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:05 pm

We just got news through the jungle drums that the remaining employees at Dream Time Diving in Mahahual, whose entire resort and dive shop were destroyed by Hurricane Dean, are taking a day off from rebuilding to come Splash for Trash in Xcalak. We are blessed with some awesome, generous neighbors. It would be great if we could repay the favor and do some reef clean up in Mahahual before high season...if there even is a Mahahual for high season.

Posted: Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:20 pm

A progress report.

http://www.xcalak.tv/MARINECEANUPPROGRAMEREPORT[1].doc