"Tires Landed" Volunteer environmental restoration divers Roy Dumlau, Jim McMahan and Maureen McEvoy inspect some of the fifteen tires they and other volunteers recovered from the waters of Point Lobos State Reserve.

Divers Work
to Conserve
Point Lobos

Article by Maureen McEvoy,
Photos by Marc Shargel

Maureen McEvoy is a freelance marketing consultant and avid scuba diver. Marc Shargel is an underwater photographer and multimedia producer.

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"Tires on Bottom" Some of the fifteen tires recovered from inside Point Lobos State Reserve, after volunteer divers had collected them on the ocean bottom for recovery.

A team of dedicated divers took to the calm, clear waters of Point Lobos State Reserve on Saturday, January 2, 1999 to restore Point Lobos' renowned marine reserve to its pristine condition, and to improve the public facilities there. Led by Pt. Lobos underwater docent Pat Lovejoy, divers from all over the greater bay area dedicated their day to rounding up trash from the Bluefish and Whaler's Cove areas of the underwater reserve. Over a dozen old car tires, a piece of fiberglass boat hull, a loose boat mooring and other miscellaneous litter and trash were recovered from waters as deep as 120 feet. The tires had drifted into the coves as a result of El Nino storms washing them down the Carmel River and into the ocean over the past couple of years. Great care was taken to remove any living organisms from the debris before bringing it to shore. [Note: the following weekend Lovejoy and others returned to Point Lobos and recovered two more tires, bringing the total to seventeen.]

Dive Instructor Roy Dumlau offered some underwater salvage training to the volunteers. In addition to Lovejoy, Mike Garrett, David Horne, Tom Andersen and Todd Sieber donated their time and the use of their boats to the effort. Underwater Photographer Marc Shargel documented the day on film. The crew consisted of a few professional divers and photographers, but also computer programmers, electronics engineers, marketing executives, graphic artists, a veterinarian, and more. Everyone who volunteered for the effort did so out of love and respect for our underwater world.

"Roping Tires 2"	"Roping Tires 1"
Volunteer environmental restoration divers Roy Dumlau and Jim McMahan tie a recovery line to a stack of tires 90 feet deep inside Point Lobos State Reserve.

"Moving Boulder" After many put in a full day of diving to find and recover junk tires, this group of volunteer environmental restoration divers move one of several boulders they cleared from the entry ramp at Point Lobos State Reserve. This rock was estimated at one ton.

Divers and non-divers alike worked from 9:00am until long after dark on the clean-up effort and to repair the deteriorated boat ramp. The cement ramp had become hazardous both to divers using it as an entry point and boat owners using it as a launch ramp. Powerful storm swells had knocked boulders weighing up to a ton from the breakwall down onto one side of the ramp. The other side had become compromised by deep holes which threatened to swallow the trailer tires of unwary boaters. After a full day of diving, several volunteers broke out crowbars and raw muscle power to move the boulders off the ramp. Chuck Tribolet led a construction crew in prepping the boat ramp for new cement to be poured. All who enter the water at Pt. Lobos from now on will have a much safer and enjoyable time doing so.

"Filling Hole" Diver Chuck Tribolet calls for more concrete as he and other volunteer divers work to fill holes in the launch ramp at Point Lobos State Reserve.

The bay area hosts a number of Scuba diving clubs dedicated to enjoying and preserving the marine environment our California coast has to offer. Most of these clubs were represented on Saturday including Diving singles, Monterey Peninsula Underwater Photographers, the Northern California Underwater Photographic Society, Northern California Rainbow Divers, San Francisco Reef Divers and Tandem Dive Club of Santa Clara which generously provided the workers with a gourmet picnic lunch.

The day was the brainchild of Pat Lovejoy, who, as a regular volunteer patrolling the Underwater Reserve, had gotten many reports of litter and debris on the bottom, and located much of it himself. Pat posted a note on an internet e-mail list read by Bay Area scuba divers, and quickly had a full crew of volunteers for the day. Glen McGowen, Park Supervisor, supported the clean-up effort by allowing the volunteers free access to the park for the day and generously allowing them to stay and work until the job was done, well after the usual closing time. Point Lobos State Reserve is set aside as a land and sea area to be left natural, pristine and undisturbed. The result is a junction of earth and water that inspires artists and poets, hikers and schoolchildren. Below the water's surface the underwater reserve allows divers to see what our waters can look like if left unfettered and unfished by man. Due to state budget cuts over the past several years, the Pt. Lobos ranger staff has been substantially reduced, leaving monitoring to civilians such as Lovejoy, Reiko Michisaki, Jim Vandegrift and many others. Pat, Reiko and Jim are official State Park Volunteers who patrol the park and its waters on a regular basis, warning off poachers who are fishing or hunting within the park boundaries or are otherwise violating park rules. Thanks to their efforts, park offenses are down considerably. In addition to patrolling the park, volunteers offer divers information on dive sites and stand by for rescue calls.

"Raising Tires 1"	"Raising Tires 2"
Trash tires are lifted toward the surface by volunteer environmental restoration divers at Point Lobos State Reserve. All obvious marine life was removed from the tires on the bottom before raising them.	Volunteers Jim McMahan and Dave Horne muscle tires out of the sea for transportation to the shore and proper disposal. The tires were double checked for marine life before they were beached.

Pt. Lobos Underwater Park is home to marine mammals, invertebrates and countless species of fish native to our waters. The park is limited to 15 teams of divers per day, which is monitored by a reservation system. To find out more about Pt. Lobos, or how to make dive reservations, visit their website at http://pt-lobos.parks.state.ca.us or call 831-624-8413.

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