Divers Found the Tires. A Boat Crew Hauled Them Out.

A tire on the bottom of a lake does not come up on its own, and it rarely comes up in one trip. A recent cleanup in Lake Superior shows how it actually gets done.

The Mining Journal in Marquette, Michigan, reported on October 8 that volunteer divers have been clearing discarded tires and other debris from the water around the Huron Islands. The islands sit inside the Huron National Wildlife Refuge, which is a federal Wilderness Area, and inside the Marquette Underwater Preserve, a destination for divers exploring Lake Superior.

Find, Stage, Lift

The divers belong to Great Lakes Scuba Divers and Lake Preservation, an all-volunteer nonprofit dedicated to cleaning up and preserving the Great Lakes and their watersheds. Over several dives around the islands, four of them located discarded tires and staged them for removal.

Staging is the part most people never see. The divers gathered the tires into clusters and strung them together with rope and small floats so they could be found and lifted.

Then a second crew came in. On September 16, staff from the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Fisheries Department sailed to the islands aboard the community’s research vessel, the Myrtle Tolonen, after finishing survey work in Keweenaw Bay. They recovered the clustered tires and carried them off the islands. The tribe will also handle disposal.

The refuge manager at Seney National Wildlife Refuge, which manages the Huron Islands refuge, helped connect the two groups. The paper noted that more discarded tires remain in the area, which leaves work for future cleanups.

Why the Split Works

Divers can find things nobody on the surface knows are there. They can sort them, rig them and get them ready. What volunteers in wetsuits usually cannot do alone is haul a pile of heavy, waterlogged debris across open water and get rid of it properly. A partner with a boat, a crew and a disposal plan closes that gap.

That is a model worth copying anywhere there is water.

The Same Work in Utah

Fathom Restoration is a disabled-veteran-led Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and our volunteer divers do the first half of that job on Utah lakes and reservoirs today. We go under the surface and bring up what has settled where nobody can see it. On October 10, four of our divers worked Haws Point at Strawberry Reservoir and came up with about 35 pounds of trash by our estimate, including three folding chairs, an umbrella, a kite, fishing gear and cans. On two September crew dives at Deer Creek Reservoir, we brought up about 58 pounds more.

Everything on those dives came out by hand. The heavier items on the bottom of Utah’s water will take more than hands. Our Utah Waterways Submerged Debris Atlas documents an estimated 499 submerged items across 20 Utah lakes, including 56 vehicles and 103 vessels that are individually confirmed.

A sunken vehicle carries a fuel tank, engine oil, ethylene glycol and a lead acid battery. Under the Clean Water Act, a discharge that leaves a visible sheen on the water is reportable. The U.S. Geological Survey has tracked petroleum contamination persisting in groundwater for decades at its research site near Bemidji, Minnesota.

We are building toward the recovery of submerged vehicles and vessels, and we are doing it in order: insurance, permits and commercial dive certification first. That work will depend on the same kind of partnership the Huron Islands crews showed, divers below and equipment above. Until then, our work is volunteer dive cleanups, one site at a time.

Leave the Next Pile Smaller

The tires off the Huron Islands got there one at a time, and they are coming out a cluster at a time. Utah’s lakes work the same way. Whatever goes in has to be found, carried and hauled back out by someone.

Fathom Restoration is a disabled-veteran-led Utah 501(c)(3) nonprofit running volunteer dive cleanups on Utah’s lakes and waterways and building toward the recovery of submerged vehicles and vessels. Donate or volunteer at fathomrestoration.org.

Source: https://www.miningjournal.net/news/local/2026/10/local-divers-kbic-team-up-to-remove-discarded-tires-from-huron-islands/