Griffith Uni Dive Club has it hook, line and sinker

On Sunday 5th of June the Griffith Uni Dive Club took to the Seaway with gloves on hands, bags in tow and a mission on the mind. A mission to clean up the local Gold Coast Seaway.

Many of us when diving get caught amongst the discards of fishing gear, plastic bags, empty beer bottles, run into giant suitcases and even have the opportunity to wipe our fins on huge slabs of carpet. While it may sounds like a treasure hunters paradise it can quickly become a hazard for marine life.

So the Griffith Uni Dive Club rallied their members and hit the surface with an aim to clean. We were met with a very average 3m visibility, despite this amongst the things collected were plastic bags, cardboard boxes, hats, stickers, bandaids, towels, and bags upon bags of fishing line, hooks, sinkers and plastics.

An eel that had gotten tangled in fishing line and drowned, and also a dead cuttlefish were some unfortunate members of the seaway marine community that fell victim to the trash.

Having said this, there was many beer bottles, cans and containers that had become home to some of the critters. These items were left untouched.

As divers climbed out of the water with hooks hanging off gloves, wetsuits and hair i'm sure I speak for everyone when I say we certainly felt like we had accomplished something.

The end product was both shocking and satisfying. The Griffith Uni Dive Club intends to hold these clean-up dives as often as possible as every bit counts.

To lend the club a bit of support the Gold Coast Bulletin also showed up...

A big thankyou to Ryan Pearson for organising the events and snapping the pics and Ben Murray for organising an awesome BBQ afterwards. Here's to the next one!

Sarah Shark www.sarahshark.com