Mr. Clean for the ocean

Deepa Bharath

Tony Mickelson likens himself to a gardener mowing lawns. Only,

Mickelson needs to scuba dive to do his job.

He and his team of divers go underwater and clean the hulls of

several boats docked in the bay.

“A lot of people who buy boats don’t think about the Pacific Ocean

growing under their boats,” Mickelson said.

His job is basically to clean the hulls of boats that are coated

with a protective paint called anti-fouling paint. That paint has a

copper oxide base that minimizes growth of barnacles and other sea

growth on the hull. Mickelson and his divers clean the growth with

soft pads before it eats up the paint. When, and if that happens, the

paint can get diffused into the ocean, causing environmental

problems, he said.

“By keeping the hulls clean, boat owners also save on fuel,”

Mickelson said. “Because when you operate the boat with all that

growth, it gets bogged down instead of skimming along in a nice,

smooth pace.”

The strain of pulling all the extra weight also causes the boat’s

engine to overheat, he said.

Mickelson and two other divers who work for him clean about 250

boats a month. He has operated his business for about 25 years now.

“It’s a small operation, but we have our loyal customers,” he

said.

Different boats have different schedules, Mickelson said. Some are

cleaned weekly, others once every two weeks. Most are cleaned

monthly.

The biggest challenge the divers face is the weather, Mickelson

said.

“After a major rainstorm like we had earlier this week, it’s very

hard for us to get in the bay,” he said. “Visibility becomes zero,

and the water poses bad conditions for us because of the runoff from

the road.”

They have still managed to “do our route” despite the weather.

Mickelson mostly charges a flat rate to customers -- anywhere between

$1.20 a foot to $5 a foot, depending on the mess.

Mickelson doesn’t dive just to pull out the barnacles. Very often,

panicking customers call him to fetch car keys they dropped in the

bay. He runs a 24-hour emergency service just for situations like

that.

“We’ve got all sorts of things from the bay, from car keys to

watches and sunglasses,” he said. “I’ve heard of other divers finding

false teeth and wheelchairs.”