Lake Te Anau underwater clean up

On a calm winter day on the 7th of July the community of Te Anau got together for a fantastic Lake clean up effort.

Underwater clean up

The Descend dive team efforts were supported by the Rob Wilson from the Ghost Diving NZ team that came all the way down from Wellington and brought along manpower, specialist knowledge and equipment to get the most rubbish out we can. We also had support from a good group of Dunedin divers and Queenstown locals who made the drive to Te Anau for a good cause.

Underwater we encountered an amazing amount of old tyres. To be precise, 83 tyres and a whole lot of other rubbish got pulled out from under the wharfs by the divers involved.

Fantastic community effort

With a helping hand from the Te Anau Department of Conservation team word got out which attracted many local volunteers who were collecting rubbish along the lake shore. Fiordland Jet and the Fiordland Outdoors Co. helped with transport of rubbish across the lake. Fiordland College students displayed their self built underwater rover that provided a life stream for interested onlookers to see whats happening below the surface. Kids were able to enjoy a close up look of freshwater sponges under the microscope thanks to equipment set up by Kids Restore the Kepler.