A group of 633 divers entered the waters near the Deerfield Beach International Fishing Pier, Florida, to clean up debris and trash from the ocean floor.
The divers set the world record for the greatest underwater cleanup ever. The milestone was verified by the Guinness World Records organization, that had staff on the scene to count the divers.
Michael Empric, an adjudicator for Guinness, said that he counted off every single diver that entered the water for over fifteen minutes. Divers came from all across the world to participate in this event.
The previous world record was set in 2015 by a team of 614 divers in the Red Sea, that were led by Ahmed Gabr, a former Egyptian Army scuba diver.
The divers in Florida managed to recover at least 1,626 pounds of trash and 60 pounds of fishing line. Tyler Bourgoine, though, one of the divers that participated in the cleanup, explained that this number is likely to rise as crews work to weigh all of the debris which was collected.
The ocean conservation team Project AWARE estimates that as much as 3,200 pounds of garbage could’ve been picked up in the effort.
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