Clean Up on Aisle Nine
The cold wind stung my face as we all boated out to our dive site. Myself, Carolina, and Dani headed to Holderness Harbor to pull milfoil. Little did we know, these were going to be the last dives to conclude our season. Carolina suited up and dove under to vacuum up milfoil with the diver assisted suction harvester (DASH). Using the DASH hose you get some unsuspecting critters like mystery snails, crayfish, macroinvertebrates, and leeches. You also come across dozens of vacationer’s lost sunglasses and occasionally hats.
I pulled on a wetsuit and walked over to the shoreline to pull milfoil. There I stood crouched over with my dive hood pointed up like a thumb. My knees sunk into the muck as I reached out my arms to pull up the roots of the milfoil. As the dive season progresses, milfoil becomes brittle and starts to seed, making it easier for fragmentation to occur. It’s important to reduce fragmentation because those fragments can drift and new milfoil plants can grow. I proceeded to snorkel after pulling along the shoreline to some slightly deeper areas. The weight belt pulled me down so close that my stomach was nearly touching the bottom. Once I found a slightly deeper patch, I kicked down and pulled up another couple of plants. As I was nearing the end of my breath hold, I kicked my fins and felt an abnormal amount of resistance. broke the surface of the water, continually kicking to stay afloat. Carolina sat on a dock several feet unbeknownst to her, I had too much weight on the belt. A few mouthfuls of lake water later, I thrusted the belt towards her outstretched hand. She willingly took some weight off and handed the belt back to me.
Once Carolina emerged from her second dive, she turned towards the yellow sign and posed fittingly for the last dive of the season. Being an AmeriCorps member means serving your community to have a meaningful impact. Most often when the dive crews are out, people recognize who we are and what we are doing. Sometimes though, we have people who are confused as to why we are diving underwater with a large hose. This gives us an opportunity to engage with the public and educate them on aquatic invasive species (AIS). LRCC members at SLA cumulatively pulled 4,092 gallons of milfoil this summer! By managing AIS, we are strengthening our community while engaging with the public. Engagement is crucial to having a positive impact as it’s an opportunity to pique people’s interest and for them to volunteer for their communities.