Diving for debris: Kingston divers pull garbage out of Lake Ontario on day of cleanup, awareness
Our water sources are some of the most important resources we have in the world, so divers and volunteers came together in Kingston to clean up Lake Ontario’s shoreline on Saturday.
It is all part of a global effort to clean up waterways.
Pulling a large truck tire from the water, volunteer Derek Evans says he is not sure how long it has been at the bottom of Lake Ontario. It’s filled with zebra mussels and mud, but the rubber has the potential to be a serious issue.
"This is at least 50 pounds," Evans says. "It definitely would be a lot of damage to the fish and the wildlife in the water."
Getting this tire, and other garbage, is part of a massive project called, 'Kingston Waters Clean Up.' More than 70 divers, kayakers and shorelines volunteers are bagging up garbage to keep it out of the water and drawing awareness to the issue, explains organizer Guillaume Courcy.
"Divers are sometimes the first and only witnesses of underwater pollution," Courcy says. "We’re going (down) there, we see it. Who’s going to pick it up if it’s not us?"
Courcy says Lake Ontario is a vital resource for the city, and garbage can be a serious problem.
"(Garbage) will sink down and it will start disintegrating, especially plastics," he says. "Plastics will create microplastics and this will get into the food chain."
Courcy says the debris can come from anywhere - from people tossing garbage, to tires that were used as bumpers on docks and boats.
In a few hours, more than two dozen tires have been pulled from the water. The larger items, along with smaller ones like bottles and cans, will be carefully recorded and weighed. That information will be passed along to a foundation called the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI AWARE), which tracks similar information around the world and lobbies governments and businesses about the issue.
In its 4th year, more than 1,400 kilograms of garbage has been pulled out of Lake Ontario in that time.
Michelle Clarabut, with the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes, says creating an event the public can come to helps people witness what comes out of the water.
"Think about what’s in the water, think about what’s impacting the ecosystems we live in," Clarabut explains. "The Great Lakes are a fantastic fresh water resource, but they are threatened."
Volunteer diver Adele Leonard says the experience is great, but seeing what is down there is difficult.
"I’m seeing a lot of cans and bottles and stuff that people might take out for a night out near the water," she explains. "It’s kind of, I guess, pretty sad."
With no tally yet for what’s pulled out of the water Saturday, Courcy says anything is a success in his eyes.
"The more we pull out, the less there is out there."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.