Hello all,

I have been offline for the last several months mostly due to diving, travel and a lack of internet access in some remote areas.  I have continued to pusure our Dive Against Debris project at Sand Harbor State Park at Lake Tahoe Nevada and wanted to get an update posted on how we are doing.

Our October dive was amazing becuase we worked our suvey area and found no reportable debris to be collected.  I think this may be partly due to the slow down in people using the lake due to the onset of our winter here in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  We have seen a very significant reduction in people on the beach and on the water.

During November we were not able to do a Dive Against Debris at our survey site due to weather and traveling to DEMA to visit with our friends and collaborators from Project Aware.  It was great getting to meet the folks who work so hard behind the scenes at Project Aware to provide the divers in the field with the support we need to make every dive count.

December we dove Sand Harbor again and were only able to locate a few scraps of aluminum and one plastic water bottle.  Again not very much debris for our divers to locate and collect.  I would like to remind all of our divers who participate in Dive Against Debris that when we do not find any debris does not make a dive unsuccessful.  When we are able to confirm a lack of debris in the water that data is just as valuable as a report contining several pounds of debris.  This project is a great example.  The participants who stuck with me through 2015 were able to see their diving efforts make such a difference in our survey area that we eventually had a difficult time locating marine debris.  That is what this is all about.  When we go in the water to collect debris and come out empty handed we should be excited that no debris was found.

Debris divers please keep up the hard work and keep making every dive count toward the removal of marine debris from our aquatic environment.  I will be continuing our efforts to clean Lake Tahoe and keep it blue with Dive Against Debris dives all around the Lake Tahoe area during 2016.  Stay tuned for updates on our progress.