Fighting the Invaders

Well, never let it be said that Manta Divers does not come up with some really different activities for divers. If you follow the blog at all, you will recall that yesterday was our day for picking weeds underwater.  We did and it was a wonderful day.

We left the shop at 7AM and headed out to Troy, WI and the Nature Conservancy’s area on Lake Lulu.  While we were setting up our gear, Mike and Southeastern Wisconsin Land Steward, Jerry Ziegler, set the dive flags to mark off the area where we would be working to carefully remove invasive Eurasian Water Milfoil (EWM). 

With the dive flags set and our scuba kits assembled, we boarded the pontoon boat and headed out.  Surface support included Jerry, Mike, Kathryn and Jerry’s intern, Elizabeth.  Their job was to keep an eye on the divers, look for any stray EWM, exchange full collection bags for empty ones, and make sure that boaters obeyed the law and stayed 100ft from our dive flags.

Photo by Kathryn Elliott

Meanwhile, underwater, Sheryl, Chris, Brandon, Ken, Tater and I were diving in teams with one person carrying a mesh collection bag, and the other diver picking milfoil.  We were to find the offending plants and carefully pull them out, trying to get the roots as well as the rest of the plant. When we had our mesh bag full, we called for Elizabeth and she paddled out in the canoe to take our full bag and give us a fresh one to fill. 

At first, it was slow going, with only occasional small plants being found. I thought to myself, ”Wow, they really are winning this battle!” I was wrong, though, because as we continued to sweep the lake bottom, we were coming across large patches of the plant.  When we found the patches, both divers would pick, roll the long branches up in a bundle and place it in the bag.  You can guess what happened as soon as we started to pull up the plants.  Good thing for us, we would pick as long as we could, then move to another, clearer spot, pick there and then return to the previous spot.  Usually, the sediment cleared up enough that once again, we could see more plants to pick and our buddy.

Meeting the other dive teams at the surface, we would excitedly state that we “found the mother lode” and show off our bags.  We all enjoyed finding the big patches and clearing out so much milfoil. Jerry was really impressed with the amount of weeds we removed, and was so excited to have volunteers with our skills.  We were able to remove so much more than the snorkelers he has had help in the past because we could stay down for 30-40 minutes at a crack.

Photo by Kathryn Elliott

We dove for a couple of hours then broke for lunch, Mike cooking brats and hot dogs, and the rest of us sharing fruit, chips and other snacks.  Fortified and rested, we then swapped our tanks for fresh ones and hit the water again. 

It was a great day, fun and productive.  The only negative thing was a run in with some boaters who did not know that they were to stay 100ft from our flags and who, when informed of the law, expressed great displeasure that we had the audacity to take their spot in the lake.  The irony, of course is that we would not be doing this clean up if it weren’t for then I the first place.  They bring their boats through the river channel into Lake Lulu from another lake that has a EWM problem so severe that they have to use chemicals to control it. The EWM gets wound around their props and when they reverse them in Lake Lulu, the plants are deposited in the water where they float to the bottom, root themselves and start a new patch.

Photo by Kathryn Elliott

There are self-absorbed idiots everywhere, but fortunately, there are more people who are on board with trying to stem the spread of these invaders, who participate in these clean-ups and have fun doing it!