Standing thigh-deep in water and getting muddy while filling garbage bags with alien algae might not be everyone’s idea of an ideal Saturday, but it was for about five dozen people at the Waikalua Loko Fishpond in Kaneohe.

"Anytime you’re in the water, it’s fun, especially with the tools, it made it easier," said volunteer Kamanu Bicoy, 52, of Kailua.

"Edward Scissorhands tools," she added, referring to the 1990 Tim Burton film.

The group of 47 volunteers and 12 staff members from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i worked together most of the morning to remove about 6,150 pounds of the invasive algae. The department and the conservancy co-sponsored the event as part of Hawai‘i Invasive Species Awareness Week on Oahu.

Participants used clawlike hand tools to pull up certain seaweeds — kappaphycus and eucheuma, and gorilla ogo (Gracilaria salicornia) — which have been growing in Kaneohe Bay for more than 30 years and smother the reef. The ogo grows in large tumbleweed mats, breaks free and spreads, according to the state.

In 2010, the Division of Aquatic Resources used a pump system called a Super Sucker to assist in the removal of 98,000 pounds of alien algae from Kaneohe Bay. It also used a native sea urchin as a biocontrol, but the seaweed has spread into the fishponds as well.

Kailua resident Nani Kauka, 64, said it was her first time at the fishpond, but she has been volunteering regularly with the Nature Conservancy.

"This year, we’ve decided to do a community work day every Saturday," she said, adding she collected four or five bags of the algae "just standing in one spot and turning around, which is hard to do" in the mud-bottom fishpond.

Resident volunteer Fred Takebayashi, 86, who grew up on a neighboring fishpond, spends about half a day every day to clean out the invasive algae and works with volunteer groups.

While growing up there, "there were lots of fish — mullet, awa awa and kaku (barracuda)," he recalled. "Now the fish come and go. This (invasive algae) covers the floor of the fishpond. Some feed on the mud, but they cannot get to the mud because of the limu.

"I think we’re making good progress with these groups."

But he said many people in the neighboring subdivision are unaware of the problem.

"We haven’t done enough to let our immediate community know," he said.

Bill and Nancy Crockett, 63 and 56, who live nearby, read about the cleanup in the Star-Advertiser and wanted to help.

"We kayak on the bay, sail on the bay," he said, and so they have an affinity for the ecosystem.

His first time at the fishpond resulted in a sore back.

"It’s worth it," he added.

The 123 bags of limu will go to local farmers for use as a potassium-rich fertilizer.

"It’s always a learning experience," Bicoy said as she walked the rock wall of the loko ku‘i, a type of fishpond unique to Hawaii.

University of Hawaii at Manoa graduate student Rachel Dacus, 28, said: "I study coral reefs and I know what a threat invasive algae is in Hawaii, and I enjoy seeing the impact volunteers have working together. If it was just one person, it would be way too overwhelming, there’s so much of it."

Maya Walton, 27, a graduate student at UH studying coral disease, said, "How fun to give something back to something you spend so much time in. It’s really satisfying to see the bags fill up."