On a rainy and foggy Friday evening, two men swap their work clothes for wetsuits.
They stand near the edge of Mitchell’s Pond North in Portugal Cove-St. Philip’s with two kayaks, snorkeling gear, and one mission: to clean the garbage off the pond’s bottom.
“One person can make a difference,” says Paradise resident and Twillingate native Eugene Hynes.
With a piece of twine slung over one shoulder and attached to the kayak at the other end, Hynes dives down to the pond’s bottom. Slowly, the kayak moves along the top of the pond. To passersby it would look as if it’s missing its occupant.
But the kayak is not empty.
It’s slowly getting filled with old soda cans, rusted hubcaps, pieces of fishing rods, a VCR, a bicycle tire, and more.
Hynes emerges with a hockey puck, which he tosses atop the growing pile of garbage in his kayak.
Farther up the pond, Conception Bay South resident and Burin native Jason Brushett is doing the same.
After two hours, the men come ashore with their kayaks full of garbage they’ve plucked from the pond’s bottom.
“At least now our families, along with all the fish, eels and birds can enjoy a much cleaner and litter-free bottom,” says Hynes, as he sorts through the junk.
The making of superheroes
Hynes and Brushett are both millwrights in St. John’s.
Heading out to clean up ponds after a hard day’s work has become a part of their routine ever since Hynes started doing it last summer.
“A couple of times I was in the water with the kids there, doing a bit of swimming and snorkeling, and I saw so much stuff on bottom,” he recalls, as he looks out at the pond. “And then I decided I’d clean some of it up.”
Soon, Brushett learned what Hynes was doing and offered to help.
In total, they cleaned the bottoms of 14 ponds last summer.
So far this year they’ve cleaned Octagon Pond, Neil’s Pond, Three Arm Pond, Lawrence Pond, Topsail Pond, and Long Pond.
Friday’s visit to Mitchell’s Pond North makes pond clean-up number nine for the summer.
They estimate they’ve removed over 10,000 items so far, of which about 80 per cent is either recyclable or reusable.
As for the other 20 per cent, Hynes says they dispose of it “the right way” by putting it in the garbage.
They say some of the weirdest things they’ve pulled up are a three-foot oscillating fan, the steering wheel of a car, and a cue ball.
“That stuff definitely does not belong,” Hynes says with a laugh.
What they find most often are pieces of glass, cans, bottles, and fishing gear.
Last summer, they pulled up a brand-new rod and reel with tags still attached.
When they find items that people may want back, they post them on their Facebook group, “Avalon Pond Cleanups”.
As they sort through their finds at Mitchell’s Pond North, one such item picked up by Brushett is a purse. Amongst the gravel that’s accumulated inside the zippered pockets over time, there is also a debit card and some other items which he says he’ll take a closer look at later to see if he can find the owner.
Their favourite finds are old-fashioned embossed glass bottles, which they keep for themselves or give to friends and family.
“It’s like a mini treasure hunt, but at the same time we’re cleaning up a lot of stuff off the bottom. Years ago, I suppose people thought it was out of sight, out of mind,” says Hynes.
Both men say their real reason for doing it is to try to improve the environment for future generations.
“For the kids, and the habitat for the fish,” says Brushett. “To keep their environment clean.”
“We’re only two people cleaning a few ponds, but every little bit helps, and maybe it might spark something in others,” says Hynes.
“I hope it encourages others to do their part in cleaning up the decades of waste in our waters.”
To that end, it seems they’re making progress.
One man told them he brought his son to a beach to have lunch one day, and his son wouldn’t leave until they picked up two bags of trash – he said he wanted to do the same as “the guys on Facebook.”
At a recent event, another man approached Hynes to tell him his daughter follows their Facebook page.
“He said, ‘She thinks you guys are some kind of superheroes’,” Hynes laughs and pulls a jacket over his wetsuit – a different kind of cape.