“I love projects,” he says. “This was a great way to spend COVID-19 quarantine, having fun and getting a workout with my cousin, while having a positive impact on the environment.” Soon, the cousins were coming out of the water with dive bags full... Of what? Their beach-strolling neighbors wondered. “They thought we were poaching,” Nick says.
Nick Johnson holding one piece of lead out of the 900 pounds-plus he and his cousin Colin have removed from the Emerald Bay seabed. The cousins know that, while fishing has been banned within the marine protected area since 2012, the lead weights still in the ocean are slowly degrading. The metals will continue to “bioaccumulate and damage the marine environment,” Colin says.
It is very easy for people to think ‘someone else will pick that up,’ but when everyone thinks that, no one actually does it,” Colin Johnson says, not only of the lead he and Nick collect, but of the plastic, Styrofoam, and other debris we all see on beaches. “If we all adjust our mindsets to take just a little bit more responsibility and action, we can not only have a big impact, but most importantly, a persistent impact.
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Now, the young men hope to collaborate with an artist to up-cycle the 900 pounds of lead lures, sinkers, and spark plugs they’ve cleared from the seabed into a piece of public art, a symbol of the ongoing need to protect the marine environment. “Hopefully a person or two will be inspired too see that picking up one piece of trash or one lead weight does matter and does have a tangible positive impact. Who knows, someone might see you doing it, and start picking up a piece or two themselves,” he says. “So we can have healthy, thriving ecosystems to share with the next generation.” “It is very cool to see how nature can bounce back,” Colin says of the vibrant life they see in the waters of Emerald Bay. “But it desperately needs to be given the opportunity to do so.” linkedin.com/in/n-johnson/ linkedin.com/in/colin-johnson-115553122/
