This Tuesday, the day after Memorial Day, 24 divers from the Lake Havasu Divers Association cleaned the bottom of Copper Canyon at the 6th Annual Copper Canyon Underwater Cleanup. The group met at the Lake Havasu Marina at 6:30 AM for a dive briefing and fabulous donuts from Donut Post. Volunteers traveled with their boats to Copper Canyon, which was about a 15-minute ride away. Bureau of Land Management provided a manned barge to collect trash from the divers with the assistance of the local chapter of the Sea Scouts. San Bernardino Sheriff Dept. provided security keeping boaters away during the four-hour clean-up. Besides the twenty (20) 45 gallon bags of bottles and cans collected there were other interesting items recovered. Items found: sunglasses, anchors, boat parts, hats, shoes, and a boat battery. Over 30 hours were logged underwater by the volunteer scuba divers. Next cleanup: Under the London Bridge, Bridgewater Channel Cleanup, October 15th.
Cleanup information and event organization provided by Kathy Weydig.
Copper Canyon was closed to normal boat traffic during the underwater cleanup. Nathan Adler/RiverScene
Volunteer divers Garrett Hansen and John Butler collect debris on the boat bow. Nathan Adler/RiverScene
Volunteers logged a total of 30 hours underwater during the morning cleanup. Nathan Adler/RiverScene
Divers in the water brought collected trash to the BLM work boat. Nathan Adler/RiverScene
Trash filled bags were offloaded for disposal at Partner’s Point. Nathan Adler/RiverScene
Staff members from RiverScene Magazine also were on hand to cleanup the Lake bottom. Nathan Adler/RiverScene
Unusual items can make they way to the bottom of Lake Havasu. Nathan Adler/RiverScene
Many red cups were collected in Copper Canyon from underwater. Nathan Adler/RiverScene
More trash to collect this morning. Nathan Adler/RiverScene
Can you see down there very good? I was told once you start picking stuff up off of the bottom viability goes to zero.
Visibility during the cleanup in Copper Canyon was better than usual. About 10 – 15 feet. Once you start picking up items from the bottom, it drops to zero because of the fine silt floor being disturbed. However, if you keep moving underwater, you tend always to be swimming into open water while you pick things up.
Awesome preserve are boating waterway for are kids and there’s. I would love to bring my kids down to the next one to show them how to respect the lake.
Thank you, Eric! Bring them down to the next underwater cleanup in the Bridgewater Channel on October 15th.