2023 Cleanup Dives

The first weekend of cleanup dives is in the books. We had a great turnout–thanks for those who joined us!

On Saturday, the group pulled 17 anchors, a rake, and two buckets of bottles, cans, and miscellaneous junk out of Lake Waubesa. There was a surprising amount of trash from fishers, including a lot of anchors. This one will definitely be on the list to revisit in future years.

Despite the rains on Sunday, we had a great turnout for a new location in Lake Monona‘s North Triangle. We got nine full mesh bags of bottles, cans, and plastic bags; plus two anchors, a grill cover, sign, and hubcap.

We’ll be diving the other two lakes next weekend! Here’s the information again:

• May 20 Lake Kegonsa. This dive is full. For those of you with a reservation, the barge will be leaving from the Fish Camp boat launch. If you didn’t make the cut or arrive late you can still join the dive unofficially by shore diving from Pleasant Springs boat launch. There is a $5 fee to park there. As you enter the water turn right (West). This shore dive would be an on-your-own dive, not a club event. You would need to arrange for your own buddy and there will be no briefing. You can leave trash on the barge before swimming back.
• May 21 Lake Mendota. We will shore dive from the Lake Street ramp. The Madison Lake Rescue uses this ramp for emergencies so do not block it. You will have to drop off your gear and find parking. There will be a barge that will come to you for larger items and to empty your goodie bag. We will not be diving from the barge. Randy and Rob have volunteered to help get the garbage on the barge. If the weather is nice consider lunch on the Terrace after the dive. Hoofers and Diversions did a clean up dive off the Terrace earlier in the year, but there is plenty of garbage especially off of the fraternities. This is another site that can have a lot of boat traffic. As always, have a dive flag and look up before ascending.

Hope to see you all there next week!