This past weekend, on Feb 24th, 2024, we set our sights on another cleanup dive at Point Panic.  We chose to adopt this dive site over four years ago and have been diving Point Panic at least once a month since then. Point Panic is located just outside of Waikiki. Due to its location at the mouth of Kewalo boat harbor, it tends to accumulate a lot of trash and needs regular maintenance. We partnered with Trident Adventures for this cleanup. Trident Adventures is a Navy SEAL owned and operated dive shop located on the south shore of Oahu. They offer some unique diving and land experiences. If you’re on island or planning a visit and looking for some excitement, check them out at www.tridentadventures.com.

The surf forecast called for calmer waters than what greeted us upon arrival.  Conditions were rougher than what we’re used to seeing while diving Point Panic. A thorough safety briefing was provided and volunteers were encouraged to skip the dive if they were not comfortable! After a bit of deliberation and preparation, everyone geared up and headed for the water.

The unusually strong currents ended up pushing divers around, but that didn’t deter us from removing a lot of marine debris from the reef and ocean floor. Below are two images of the negative effects of humans on this location. The first is an octopus who has made a home in a stack of carelessly discarded plastic cups. The cups and octopus were left undisturbed. The second photo is a bed sheet wrapped around a coral head. Once the sheet was carefully pulled back, there was visibly dying coral below it. We have high hopes that this coral head can recover now that it has been freed from the suffocating sheet.

An octopus inside of a clear plastic cup on the ocean floor that was seen while diving at Point Panic
A white bed sheet wrapped around the base of a large coral head seen while diving at Point Panic

In total, the divers returned with an impressive 125 pounds of trash despite the challenging conditions!  Everyone piled their findings on a tarp to be sorted, weighed, and logged with PADI Aware. Some notable items found were a No Parking sign, a bathmat, a bed sheet, two hats, two ceramic bowls, and the usual suspects of fishing waste, cans, bottles, and single use plastics.

Nudi Wear volunteer divers at Point Panic Beach Park posing with a blue tarp covered with marine debris they removed from the ocean
glass bottles, single use plastic containers, and aluminum cans on a blue tarp after they were removed from the ocean while diving at point panic
Rough Cleanup Conditions While Diving Point Panic

Thank you so much to Trident Adventures and all the amazing volunteers! We hope you will join us for our next cleanup on March 23rd! Check out our upcoming events page for more details!