VIDEO: Second dive for ‘Great Battery Roundup’ in West Seattle waters

| Environment | West Seattle news

How are you planning to spend your New Year’s Day? “Diver Laura” James will be under water, continuing the Great Battery Roundup. We featured her prep dive earlier this week, and the work continued on New Year’s Eve. She sent the video above and report below:

Removing derelict batteries from the debris field of boat wreckage in one of the most dove sites in Puget Sound: The “Honeybear” sunk decades ago due to disrepair; it was a cabin cruiser and it has since rotted away almost to the core. The decking degraded to the point where we could see the ‘house batteries’ for the boat. On dive 1 we removed the decking; (on Thursday_ we moved the first battery, preparing to pull it from water and take to Seattle Iron and Metals Corporation, a metal recycling facility. (Today) we will hopefully remove the remaining 5 from the debris pile. Volunteers are welcome, both shore support and underwater (but you have to be certified and comfortable diving in our chilly emerald sea). Donations for the project can be made to Sustainable West Seattle.

ScubaFrog January 1, 2021 (11:10 am)

I used to dive the honeybear, a fun little wreck. Thanks Diver Laura for keeping our waters clean, and for monitoring our ecology!

Jeff Rayner January 1, 2021 (12:35 pm)

Laura,You are an unsung hero of our local waters!Thanks for everything you do for the community and the wildlife.Happy New Year!

Michael Ross January 1, 2021 (3:56 pm)

Nice work! I really appreciate that people like you are part of the community. Cheers!

Concerned Neighbor January 1, 2021 (4:56 pm)

I hope that the diver(s) are being safe. They need to remove the caps before surfacing, otherwise the pressure difference can cause the caps to blow off and spray acid in their faces. (A friend of mine experienced this.) Thank you for your efforts in cleaning up our waters.

Margaret January 1, 2021 (5:34 pm)

Diver Laura is the coolest!

diverlaura January 1, 2021 (7:21 pm)

concerned neighbor, do not worry, these have been underwater for decades, 3 of the 8 have the caps off already the other 5 we will of course check before bringing them to surface, same as when we did in 2012. We removed over 1/2 ton of lead in 2012 from this dive site alone with ZERO safety issues and no acid exposure. More icky is the black stinky sludge that is left in the batteries, we go to great lengths now to make sure not to get that on anything we want to keep :) Of note, these batteries were mostly covered with left over decking and I was not able to see any critters inside them, but we will still move them into the freshwater lens and just within the intertidal zone to encourage anyone who might have been living inside to vacate. (no gunnel to the recycling facility please) :)

Sorry, comment time is over.