On Saturday, October 7th, 2023, we hosted our monthly Dive Against Debris where we head to the ocean with the goal of removing deadly marine debris. With Halloween fast approaching, we decided to put a spooky twist on our usual cleanup. Divers showed up to our adopted dive site, Point Panic, in costumes to not only celebrate Halloween, but to draw attention to the fact that trash is the real scary thing found in the ocean. The spook-tacular costumes included sharks, skeletons, a Ninja Turtle, a doughnut, a tiger, and a nudibranch. There were even claims of finding Waldo at the event!

Nudi Wear Halloween Cleanup Volunteer Divers

After a quick dive site and safety briefing for new volunteers, everyone geared up and headed to the water. Divers were underwater for about an hour before they surfaced with horror stories of what was encountered. Some people believe the scary things found in the ocean are goblin sharks, giant squid, and bobbit worms. However, our volunteers tell a different tale. They surfaced with stories of “bottle graveyards” where there are bottles and cans for as far as the eye can see. Stories about reefs completely covered in fishing line, coral heads being suffocated by clothing, and single use plastics galore. Even though this is our 11th cleanup at this dive site just this year, we still managed to find and remove a heartbreaking 331 pounds of debris. Some noteworthy items removed were stuffing from a couch cushion, a tire, a 5-gallon bucket, a fishing net, 2 serving trays, a dress, a pillow, and parts of a filing cabinet along with lots of the usual bottles, cans, single use plastics, fishing line, lead weights, and hooks.

Nudi Wear finds scary things in the ocean during Halloween cleanup dive
Sharks aren't the scary thing found in the ocean during Nudi Wear Cleanup
Volunteer holding stuffing from a coach cushion that was removed from the ocean
Nudi Wear Dive Against Debris in Honolulu, Hawaii
Nudi Wear volunteers sorting through scary things found in the ocean during a cleanup
Tires removed from the ocean by Nudi Wear Volunteers

The following evening, many of the volunteers met back up to repurpose some of the items found in the ocean into Halloween decorations!

The spine-tingling reality is that we must start taking better care of our oceans before it’s too late! Mahalo to all the volunteers who came out and got into the spooky season spirit and helped make our oceans boo-tiful! If you are on Oahu or planning to visit, we would love for you to join us at one of our beach or ocean cleanups. Visit our upcoming events page to see our scheduled events!