Divers from the "North Bay Scuba Club" were preparing and diving in a marina boat on Lake Nipissing to clean the water of trash and debris before the boating season.

It is also a warm-up diving experience for club members looking forward to starting the diving season. Six divers split into pairs to remove what they found in the depths of the murky water.

Rick Taylor, a member of the North Bay Scuba Club, said, "Definitely anything strange in the water contributes to pollution and we do this as a service to the city and the marina." "Suppose there is a park chair underwater and you come with your boat, it can definitely get caught in your propeller."

The divers pulled out beer cans, tires, ropes, and a whole patio umbrella. They have been cleaning the shallow area over the past twenty years to find all kinds of things. Rick Taylor added, "In the past, we used to pull out things like boat covers, fabrics, tools, sunglasses, and fans."

In some cases, divers can return lost items to their owners. The North Bay Fire Department contacted the club and asked its divers to search for a missing firefighter's axe.

Diver Rick Thibault explained, "Obviously, they were doing a training simulation and lost it or it slipped from their hands during the winter."

The Scuba Club is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. It used to offer training courses for new divers but this stopped about a decade ago. It still welcomes new divers of all levels. Thibault smiled and said, "If I could stay longer, I would live there."