Underwater marina cleanup yields a mountain of trash, tools and technology

A diver hands up a bag of collected trash to a shore support volunteer.

Sunday morning dawned cloudy with a hint of rain, but that made no difference for the more than 50 eager volunteers who gathered at the Edmonds Marina S and T docks for what has become a semi-annual tradition – diving under the boat moorages to clean up several years of accumulated debris, most of which was either mistakenly dropped or discarded from boats moored in the Marina’s slips.

“Rain? Pfft!” scoffed one diver. “We’re mostly underwater anyway!”

Annie Crawley has devoted her life to campaigning to protect and preserve the world’s ocean environment.

“We’ve been doing this for gosh – 10 or 12 years,” said Annie Crawley, who leads the all-volunteer youth dive team. Crawley is an internationally known ocean advocate, underwater photographer, educator, youth organizer and tireless advocate for the oceans’ environmental health. She and her crew of volunteers see this as much more than just a cleanup, but a part of their larger shared mission to raise awareness of marine environmental issues.

And while cleaning up the marina’s underwater environment is the immediate goal, Crawley sees these regular events as a vehicle to raise public awareness of the ocean, its importance to all life on this planet, and the pressing need to protect and preserve it.

Sea life like this gunnel inevitably comes up with the trash. Volunteers sort through everything as soon as it comes to the surface, and part of this is rescuing and returning all sea life to the water.
A wheelbarrow full of trash prepares to make its way to the main collection point in the marina parking area.
A wheelbarrow of collected debris arrives at the collection point.
Volunteer Barbara Bromley teaches fourth and fifth grade at Hazelwood Elementary. She incorporates special units on marine science in her classroom, part of which includes inviting Crawley to visit the school and speak with her class.
A diver takes a moment to stretch out between trash collecting trips to the bottom.
Among this year’s prize finds was a fairly new laptop computer.

“We’re hoping that by bringing all this garbage to the surface, we can prompt people to notice, think about and hopefully act on the larger issue of maintaining a healthy ocean ecosystem,” she said. “This trash is a great visual representation of what’s happening below the sea. It’s easy to fall into the mindset that when something falls into the water it just sinks and goes away. But there is no ‘away.’ The ocean is so important to our lives – the ocean would be fine without us, but people won’t be fine without a healthy ocean.”

These cleanups by Crawley and her dive team also reflect the strong environmental stance of the Port of Edmonds, which has made these events an official part of its long-term environmental plan. Port Commissioners Janelle Cass and David Preston were on hand to lend their support and thank Crawley and all the volunteers for their efforts.

Port Commissioner Janelle Cass thanks Crawley and her team for their efforts.

“We’re always looking for new volunteers to help out,” added Crawley.  “You don’t have be a diver to be part of this – there’s plenty of opportunity for anyone with an interest and passion for protecting and preserving our world ocean.”

Learn more about Annie Crawley and how you can join her team at the Our Ocean and You website.

Crawley, volunteers and guests pause for a group photo with the pile of underwater trash.

— Story and photos by Larry Vogel

  1. Wonderful work and cause! I raised an eyebrow when I saw that a “fairly new” laptop was found underwater.

    Where does all the collected Marina garbage go? To the regular landfill?

  2. Maybe they should take color pictures of the garbage, enlarge them & post them at the gates boat owners use to access the docks as visual examples. And a message: PLEASE TAKE CARE OF OUR OCEANS, for example. Sure, sometimes something is dropped accidentally but even so, reminders could create more awareness.. Bless the volunteers.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Real first and last names — as well as city of residence — are required for all commenters.
This is so we can verify your identity before approving your comment.

By commenting here you agree to abide by our Code of Conduct. Please read our code at the bottom of this page before commenting.