22 April, 2003

Today is Earth Day and our fearless leader; Dr. Charles Amsler suggested that we conduct a team project as stewards of Earth. To be a steward means to use a resource wisely without destroying or exploiting it with no respect for its value or care to save it for future use for yourself or other generations.

Through the years station personnel into the dock area of the station have mistakenly dropped many items. A lot of junk now lies on the floor of the sea right around the dock area. Chuck's idea was to get all of the divers on station to pair up, dive down with sampling bags, and collect as much of the debris as possible to give the dock area the ability to go back to its natural unspoiled state.

We have 6 divers here on station at this time, five from our team and the diving coordinator, Rob Robbins. Two of us on the team are tenders. Pairs of divers went in together and collected the rubbish. They hauled up full bag after full bag of trash for several hours. We all had a great time because for one reason, we enjoyed helping the environment and for another reason, we marveled at the things that were down there.

Attached is a picture of the group and our rubble pile. The members are in order starting with the back row, Anne, me, Maggie, Kevin, Stephanie and front row, Rob, Chuck, and Yusheng.