Volunteers complete cleanup of tire graveyard in Kailua Bay

Four boats full of 40 volunteers came together on Sunday to finish the project of removing nearly 100 dumped tires that have been sitting for a couple decades on the ocean floor in pristine Kailua Bay.

Ocean Defenders Alliance, a nonprofit dedicated to cleaning and protecting marine ecosystems, led the operation that took place about 600 yards offshore of Royal Kona Resort on the Big Island.

Sarah Milisen, Hawai‘i Island Chapter leader for Ocean Defenders Alliance, said the volunteers first tackled the area, known as Tire Valley, on April 22, 2024. They removed 61 tires during that operation. This past Sunday, 32 more tires were removed.

There are a few tires that remain, but they were not removed because they have become part of the reef.

“We didn’t think it would be helpful since the coral is growing over the top, and we didn’t want to break the coral,” Milisen said.

She and other volunteers went down to the tire graveyard a week before the Sunday operation to prep the area by bundling the tires together to make the day of the cleanup efficient.

The tires, averaging about 190 pounds, were floated to the surface with lift bags and then hauled out of the water by a crane attached to the vessel of Blue Ocean Mariculture, the only open ocean finfish farm operation in the United States that raises Hawaiian Kanpachi off Keahole Point in West Hawai‘i.

Volunteers from Body Glove, Captain Zodiak and Aquatic Life Divers also helped in the cleanup.

A year earlier, Milisen’s husband Jeff Milisen discovered the mountain of tires by accident when he “mis-navigated” to an old wreck where he planned to create a 3-D image of the site.

At that time, he estimated the tires had been there at least 20 years.

“Tires are a triple threat of issues,” Jeff Milisen said. “Not only are they big and bulky and smash into corals, they’re filled with hundreds of chemicals.”

Jeff Milisen said it takes 5 gallons of oil to produce the average tire. When they end up in the water, the oil and chemicals leech out, killing larval fish.

Sarah Milisen was devastated the first time she saw the tires, sitting in 60 to 70 feet of water.

“It was tires everywhere; all over the reef,” Milisen said. “Just piles scattered throughout the ocean.”

She said some of the tires removed from the ocean floor were filled with shells of urchins, explaining the creatures that climbed into the center of the tire got stuck there and ended up dying.

After the cleanup, the Milisens did a final dive of the area to take after-images to show the area without tires.

“It felt so successful and complete,” Milisen said.

While there are imprints of where the tires once sat, Sarah Milisen said the reef looks much healthier and less like a dumping site.

Sean Holmes, who works as an offshore operations trainer with Blue Ocean Mariculture, helped with the cleanup. He said growing up in upstate New York, the water was cold and dark. Since living on the Big Island, Holmes said he can’t imagine anything prettier than Kailua Bay, with its clear water and diversity of wildlife.

When he saw the Tire Valley, Holmes said: “It was a shock. I couldn’t believe there was so much garbage in the crystal clear Kailua Bay.”

Holmes celebrated with the other volunteers after the completion of the five-hour operation. He said: “We really took care of the brunt of the debris in Kailua Bay, which is a huge win for everybody.”

Sarah Milisen wasn’t sure why that spot in the bay was a magnet for the tires, adding the site was home to an old established mooring.

“It does cost money to recycle tires,” she said, adding the state should offer free recycling for these items.

While the nonprofit did get a discount, they did have to pay more than $1,000 for the disposal of the tires, which were taken by Big Island Scrap Metal.