[Diving with Datou] How to Organize a Safe Ocean Cleanup Dive

Before you dive into this article, the Editor has a great giveaway to share: simply leave a comment with a photo of yourself participating in a beach cleanup or ocean cleanup dive on the BlueTrend fan page event post before 22

on 8/12, 2019, and you'll have a chance to take home a MIT premium regulator set sponsored by YHS Yuhsin Management Consulting! Event link — click here

Beyond Beach Cleanups — We Can Also Dive to Clean the Ocean!

As conservation awareness grows, more and more organizations are spontaneously holding beach cleanup events, and participating in such meaningful activities has almost become a mainstream expression of environmental responsibility. But beyond cleaning up on shore, those of us who are divers can actually strap on our scuba tanks and head underwater to collect trash. In this article, we asked Datou to share how he efficiently and safely organizes ocean cleanup dives — experience he gained over a year of instructor training with the Jiuqianshui dive club.

First, take a look at this shocking footage of a "plastic bottle sea" at Heping Island that we filmed this year!

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TIP 1: Choosing a Location

When organizing an ocean cleanup dive, aside from the safety of the water itself, there's one thing that worries organizers even more — finding no trash to collect!! This is a real problem. You've gathered everyone together, and if you come back without bags full of rubbish, there's an inexplicable sense of letdown (the Editor genuinely thinks everyone who shows up for an ocean cleanup has a heart of gold).

So let's start by looking at the terrain. Here are two types of water areas we frequently use for our cleanup dives, shared for your reference.

As the images above show, trash tends to accumulate inside small coves because currents flowing in stagnate there — sometimes even forming eddies — so debris that enters simply can't get back out (it's like catching turtles in a jar). If you're scouting for a location, start by looking for this type of terrain.

TIP 2: Ensuring Safety

Once a location is confirmed, you can move on to an actual reconnaissance dive. Before assembling your scout team, make sure everyone has the following fundamentals down:

• Since we're calling it a "team," please always bring at least two people — follow the dive buddy system.
• Bring a camera or video camera to document the underwater situation.
• A surface marker buoy (SMB) is essential; if you're lucky enough to find a "plastic bottle sea," you can use it to mark your position on the surface.

Regarding the choice of cleanup site, Datou also shares some practical experience for reference. The following recommendations are specifically for entry-level group ocean cleanup dives. If your team is at an advanced level (deep cleanups, ghost net removal, using lift bags to bring heavy objects to the surface, etc.), the advice in this article does not apply.

• First: Choose a flat area no deeper than 10m. As diving physiology tells us, at 10m you can ascend directly to the surface regardless of bottom time without needing to worry about nitrogen loading in your body. This means that if anyone feels unwell during the cleanup, or if the bags are simply too full and you need to surface, it's much safer to do so. At greater depths, regardless of whether you're using air or enriched air nitrox (EANx) cylinders, your working time is limited and the risks during the cleanup increase accordingly.

• Second: Choose a flat area with minimal current. In TIP 1 we already identified small coves as prime locations, and these coves tend to have calmer, gentler currents with sandy bottoms, making the cleanup process safer. That said, sea conditions can be unpredictable, so when scouting it's a good idea to check at both high and low tide to assess current conditions at different times.

• Third: Try to schedule the event during neap tides — for no other reason than that currents are weaker and visibility tends to be better.

These three points are all about reducing risk by choosing the right location and timing for your cleanup event. Even a minor incident during an organized activity puts enormous pressure on the organizers!

Once you've confirmed the site, contact the local Environmental Protection Bureau or relevant management authority to arrange for trash disposal after the cleanup. We've seen cases where groups left bags of collected rubbish on the roadside after an ocean cleanup, causing friction with local shop owners. Don't let a good deed turn into a headache for others!

TIP 3: Team Composition

For an entry-level group ocean cleanup dive, there's usually a broader goal — such as using the activity to teach students or group members about the importance of reducing plastic in daily life. The participants may lean toward the less experienced side. In this case, it's recommended that the guiding instructor lead no more than 3 participants per group, because when people spot trash underwater they get excited and start grabbing everything in sight, often forgetting to monitor their pressure gauge or maintain neutral buoyancy. This is where the dive guide becomes critical: the guide's job is not to collect trash — it's to keep watch over every member of the group.

Even when everyone is experienced, Datou recommends keeping the total team size — including the dive guide — to no more than 5. While Taiwan's Water Recreation Management Regulations allow one dive instructor to lead up to 8 divers in a water activity, during an ocean cleanup too many people crowded together — combined with the sediment stirred up as trash is collected — actually reduces efficiency.

When assigning roles, we also recommend each team member take on a basic task division:

• Dive guide × 1: Maintains orientation and the return route; monitors depth, dive time, and the condition of every team member.
• Collectors × 3: These are the main workers — they focus on picking up as much trash as possible and stuffing it all into mesh bags.
• Support diver × 1: This role carries the greatest responsibility: bringing extra mesh bags, surface marker buoys (SMBs), a dive knife, and other supplies to hand off to the collectors as needed. This person can also carry a small camera to help document the dive — which ties into TIP 4, coming up shortly.

Finally, the most important element of any organized event is safety. In addition to all the points above, transferring the risk of harm through insurance is absolutely essential. Because the dive insurance landscape in Taiwan is somewhat unique, we can explore that in a dedicated article another time. For a one-day entry-level group ocean cleanup dive, a standard travel accident insurance policy from a general insurer is generally sufficient. It covers accidents throughout the entire insured day — so if, for example, you hurt your foot when a weight belt falls on it while loading gear after the cleanup, you'd still be covered even though the dive itself is over, as long as the incident occurs on the insured date. For any insurance-related questions, feel free to consult Alice at LINE ID: BlueORCAS.

TIP 4: Do Good and Make It Known

After all the hard work of organizing an ocean cleanup dive, the support diver's role becomes crucial! In the age of the internet and social media, a little creativity can transform a dry cleanup event into compelling, shareable content that spreads the message widely and helps more people understand the deeper meaning behind ocean cleanups.

An ocean cleanup dive is not the ultimate answer to marine debris — but it is the beginning of a renewed conversation between humanity and the sea.

Further reading — the Datou series:

• 【Diving with Datou】Three Steps to Reading Windy App for Dive Conditions — No Expert Required

• 【Video】Change and Constancy at Chao Jing — A Fishing Village in Transition