A small army of volunteers gathered on the Te Anau lakefront this morning for a day-long clean-up project.

The event was hosted by the Department of Conservation (DOC) but also involved Fiordland College students, members of the community and a team of divers from all over the country.

Co-ordinator, DOC Te Anau community ranger Crystal Brindle, said quantities of litter picked up from the lakeshore were encouragingly low, but some of the underwater exploration turned up a variety of items that had been discarded over many years.

Diver Lance McKirdy, of Descend Milford Sound, estimated there were around 50 tyres on the lake bottom around the old wharf area. Old bottles, metal bars and cans were also recovered.

Paying close attention to what was attached to the items pulled from the water, more than the rubbish itself, Fiordland Conservation Trust education coordinator Alessandra Menegatti found herself with an eager audience as she introduced those present to freshwater sponges.

While they looked like a form of algae, they were, in fact, an exciting example of one of Earth’s first multi-cellular creatures, she said.

“They are actual animals… probably the first ones appearing on Earth.”

The sponges had been identified last year when a group of Fiordland College students first trialled an underwater rover they had built from scratch. School holidays did not prevent some of them putting it back into action today, where a live camera feed was able to give a glimpse of what the divers were encountering. The students also recorded some footage of the underwater clean-up.

A diver emerges with another tyre retrieved from Lake Te Anau during a volunteer clean-up today.

The dive team comprised three Milford Sound divers, five from Dunedin, two from Queenstown and two members of Ghost Diving, from Wellington, an organisation that runs regular dive and beach clean ups.

Tomorrow night (8th July), the founder and president of Ghost Diving Rob Wilson, who has been involved in underwater clean ups for more than 10 years, will speak about his passion for marine conservation and the marine environment. A photographer, with a keen eye for underwater and astro landscapes, he has also been using this passion to document the ocean. 

Mr Wilson’s public talk will take place at the Fiordland National Park Visitor Centre auditorium, in Te Anau, at 7.30pm.