LET'S JUST CLEAR ONE THING UP: When you see a photograph of Avalon Harbor, you might be momentarily inclined to think that what you're looking at is actually a beautiful fantasy-driven painting. We speak of the kind of photo-realistic artwork that can make you believe that a particularly stunning image had to have been created on a computer. The addition of the bright boats and the handsome Casino Building, as well as a glimpse of the Avalon's quaint streets, can further lend the sense that you're seeing something that can't possibly exist in the real world. But exist, it does, at Catalina Island, and if you've stood on a hill above the harbor, or the balcony at the Casino Building, and you have swooned that "the pictures don't do the harbor justice," well, you're not alone. But neither are the people who come together each year to make sure the harbor is staying healthy and sparkly and not only pleasing to the eye but pleasing to the health and vibrancy of those ocean denizens that live below the harbor's gentle waves. Those people are volunteer divers, and they'll be suiting up on...
SATURDAY, FEB. 24... for the 37th Annual Avalon Harbor Underwater Cleanup. It's "...the only time diving is permitted in the Harbor," so it attracts volunteers from several points around, divers eager to experience a harbor dive while also actively supporting the local ecology. And we do mean "several points," for some 494 participants signed up in 2017. As for the trash removed from the harbor? In 2017, 5,200 pounds of doesn't-belong-here stuff came from the deep. Your day-of registration is $65, you'll want to head to Wrigley Stage to sign up, and, yep, you'll need to get over to Catalina Island, and home again, so plan all of that out. As far as other gotta-knows, important forms, registration, safety information, and asterisks surrounding the large-scale volunteer happening? Starting here is a solid plan. USC's Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber and the Wrigley Institute Scientific Diving Program are the day's beneficiaries, which rocks. As for the...
GLORIOUS H2O JUST OFF CATALINA? It surely breathes a little deeper after its Februarytime spiffy-up each and every year. As for those fantastical photos you often see of Avalon Harbor? They're real, not computer-generated. But they're so gorgeous, in part, because of the volunteers that spend a winter Saturday each year helping the harbor to stay healthy, one removed piece of trash at a time.
