Marine debris technicians undergo an extensive training program before embarking on a one-month excursion to the remote islands and atolls of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. The monument lacks facilities and is far from advanced medical care, requiring all staff to be appropriately trained in certain courses:
- First-aid, CPR, and Oxygen Administration
- NOAA Small Boat Operator
- NOAA Scientific Diver
- NOAA Marine Debris Specialized Task Endorsement
First Aid, CPR, and Oxygen Administration
As a new marine debris technician, Charley Westbrook felt “it was great to get refreshed so that we can confidently be prepared to render assistance in the event of a dive accident or medical emergency.”—Most of the marine debris team were already current and active in their first aid and CPR training.—“My teammates and I are now poised and ready to save each other!” Hopefully the team wouldn’t need it, but being prepared is essential when you are more than 1,200 miles away from the nearest hospital.
Small Boat Operation
New marine debris technicians must also take NOAA Small Boat Operator training. Small boat training includes a Motorboat Operator Certification Course and an Open-Water Module. NOAA trainers conducted the motorboat course over 2 full weeks, providing remote instruction, exams, and lots of on-the-water training.
One of the skills was safely trailering a boat. Trailering a boat is a complicated task—if you’ve ever spent some time at harbor boat ramps, you’d know!—and the team is grateful for the opportunity to learn trailering skills for the future. “I have worked on boats for the last 8 years, but they’ve all already been in the water... trailering was definitely a new skill that took some time and practice,” said Sarah Matye, a new marine debris technician.
Once the boats were in the water, students learned how to operate the boats, practicing close tight-quarter maneuvering, quick stops and turns, object avoidance drills, victim recovery, docking, and how to navigate in rougher waters with wind and swell. Will Reich, a new marine debris technician, learned a plethora of new skills. One of the most valuable things Will learned was “helm before throttle,” he said. “‘Helm before throttle’ means to completely finish turning the helm of the boat before utilizing any throttle, this ensures that the boat is only accelerating in the direction that the helm was turned.” Students experienced motorboat training in the protected waters of Pearl Harbor in Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. In the Open Water Module, the students exercised their new boat operator skills in open-ocean conditions.
Scientific Diving
Following small boat operations, the NOAA Scientific Diver (scuba) training began. This course involves timed swim tests of 1,640 feet (500 meters) in less than 15 minutes, swim tests of 82 feet (25 meters) holding your breath, and scuba skills with an emphasis on victim rescue.
Ray Boland, the Pacific Island Fisheries Science Center’s Unit Dive Supervisor, made the course fun and practical. The culmination of the NOAA Scientific Diver course is a training dive referred to as “The Quagmire.” The Quagmire combines a time-crunch and increased air consumption at a dive below 100 feet, with the high task-load of a complicated scientific survey. Ray recalls that, “prior to 2008, field training for NOAA divers wasn’t fully defined. Elements of The Quagmire were created in the early 1990s by former Unit Dive Supervisor Dr. Frank Parrish who utilized it to evaluate NOAA Diver candidates.” He adds, “By proposing a survey with a near-impossible number of tasks to complete at an unspecified site at an unspecified depth to a team of NOAA Diver candidates, I can learn several things about each diver.”
The complete Quagmire dive does a great job at combining task-loading, deep diving, scuba limitations, surveying techniques and good buddy communication, all things that are needed to be a safe and competent NOAA Scientific Diver. In addition to completing the NOAA Scientific Diver Course, marine debris technicians learn skills in freediving (breath-hold snorkeling) and tow-board operations. For marine debris missions in particular, where SCUBA is not used, the divers must become competent freedivers. In particular, marine debris crew members must be able to comfortably dive down to 30 feet, work underwater with knives to cut large entangling nets carefully from the coral reef substrate, and be aware of their surroundings—with a single breath of air!
Marine Debris Specialized Task Endorsement
Next the team took their skills to the field for 2 weeks of intense Marine Debris Specialized Task Endorsement training. This training provides more advanced techniques for boat and in-water operations the team employs in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. It emphasizes competent dive-buddy and rescue skills. Much of the training involves safety training, like a freediving method called “one-up-one-down.” In this method, one diver stays at the surface with an emergency compressed air scuba tank and regulator, while the other diver dives down to carefully remove the net from the reef.
Implementing the one-up-one-down method during operations is particularly important because of how hazardous and entangling derelict fishing nets can be underwater. If one diver gets entangled below the water’s surface, the dive buddy can render emergency air and assistance to get them back to the surface safely. Wind, rain, swells, and tiny harbor ramps also put new technicians (and veteran team members) to the test as they have to navigate the shallow reefs of Kaneʻohe Bay in Oʻahu. Every day, divers and boat operators practice practical skills like swimming through the surf zones of an outer reef, navigating the boat through heavy surf by “shooting the channel,” and tow-boarding.
Tow-boarding is something that most of the crew had never heard of prior to training. The tow-board is a flat wooden board attached to a polypro floating line on each side, which is clipped to the back of the boat. The boat slowly motors at 1-2 knots along survey transects, while in-water towboarders survey for any debris. It’s an efficient (and fun!) way to survey a large area of reef. “I would imagine it’s what Peter Pan felt like flying, completely weightless...but underwater, weaving through reefs, up, down, and around its complex structures,” said Kristen Kelly, a marine debris team veteran.
There’s always a spotter on the small boat to watch over the safety of the divers—especially to watch for large tiger sharks lurking behind—and to let the boat coxswain know when to slow down, speed up, or stop if debris has been found! By the end of the 2-week specialized training, we all felt confident boating, operating in the water, and working together as a team.
Meet the Bloggers
Sarah Matye
Sarah is a scuba instructor from Kona, Hawaiʻi. She moved to the Hawaiʻi Island after graduating from the University of California Santa Cruz with a degree in marine biology. Her previous job as a scuba instructor led her to daily diving with tiger sharks, blackwater diving in the open ocean at night (with more sharks!), and coordinating ocean and harbor cleanups. After the expedition, she’ll return to Kona to rejoin her husband and aging pup, Tipsy. If she’s not diving, she can usually be found reading, cooking, or practicing yoga!
William Reich
William is a new marine debris technician and this will be his first mission to the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Originally from northern Virginia, he moved out to Hawaiʻi 6 years ago to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree in oceanography at Hawaiʻi Pacific University. He instantly fell in love with the island and may never leave. He has spent the past 3 years collecting data as a NOAA Fisheries observer on the commercial longline fishing boats based on Oʻahu. In his free time, he loves to travel, hike, surf, and shoot photos. He is extremely stoked and grateful to be a part of this project and cannot wait for it to begin!
Claire Spitzer
Claire recently joined us from Denver, CO, where she spent the past few years working in natural resource management and freshwater fisheries. Claire earned her master’s degree in biology from San Diego State University where she researched the impacts of parasitism on predator-prey interactions in coastal kelp forest fishes. When Claire isn’t underwater, she spends her time trail running, backpacking, and paddle boarding. This is Claire’s first marine debris mission, and she is super excited to be a part of the team and to help with such an important project!
