September 9, 2025

By Mathew Channer

Photos by Henry Wang

In 2013, Henry Wang, co-founder of B.C. organization Divers for Cleaner Lakes and Oceans was starting to get bored of recreational scuba diving, until he found something worth diving for.

Invited to dive at Buntzen Lake, B.C. by his friend Jonathan Martin, the pair were shocked by the amount of garbage they discovered beneath the surface. They carried out as much as they could and came back for another trip with more divers, yet even this second mission hardly seemed to make a dent.

But Wang and Martin were determined, and over subsequent dive trips took away more than 1,700lbs of garbage from Buntzen Lake. This was the formation of Divers for Cleaner Lakes and Oceans, a small but active organization dedicated to cleaning up B.C.’s waterways. In their first year alone they removed 7,700lbs of discarded items from waterways across B.C.’s lower mainland.

While co-founder Martin is no longer actively involved in the organization, Wang has continued to dive prolifically with a small team of experienced tech and cave divers, often in difficult conditions, averaging around 50 cleanup dives per year.

“It was one lake after another, and then we started expanding into the cities,” Wang said.

Divers for Cleaner Lakes and Oceans works closely with jurisdictions like Metro Vancouver and BC Parks, removing everything from beer cans and sunglasses to tires and shopping carts from various lakes and coastal areas. During one dive, he and his team pulled 13 shopping carts from beneath a pier at Waterfront Park, North Vancouver.

“The city sent out their arborist truck with a 17,000lbs power winch, and I would drop down and hook up a shopping cart, and they would winch it into the shoreline,” Wang said.

“We went back a few years later and removed another 11 shopping carts.”

On a recent dive, Wang removed 470lbs of tires from Albert Dyck Lake in Abbotsford, working in mostly zero visibility.

“So much fun to be out here,” he says while documenting the dive on his YouTube channel, which has more than 3,500 subscribers.

“I’m going to come out again and again until the lake is clean.”

Wang’s core team of divers are very experienced, and he encourages divers interested in doing cleanup dives to seek the extra skills and knowledge they need to dive in the trickier conditions like low visibility that his team usually works in. Divers can start by enquiring about courses at their local dive shop.

“And, of course, if anyone want to donate to the team to help out with gas money so we can get to these lakes, they are welcome to do that too,” Wang said.

While garbage continues to end up in Canada’s lakes and oceans, Wang hopes his efforts inspire people to start paying attention to what goes into their waterways and find their own way to help mitigate this, whether that’s under the surface or above it.

“I’ve had lots of people who send me quite inspirational messages about their own cleanup efforts,” he said.

Divers for Cleaner Lakes and Oceans is active on social media, and you can follow their many projects and donate to the cause on Instagram or by visiting their website.