PEIWaters off the North Rustico wharf are a little cleaner now, thanks to a group called P.E.I. Scuba Divers.Group also discovers unexpected treasures while tidying up the harbourThinh Nguyen · CBC News · Posted: Oct 25, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesKelly Campbell is part of P.E.I. Scuba Divers, a group that recently completed its first organized underwater garbage cleanup off the North Rustico wharf. (Thinh Nguyen/CBC)Waters off the North Rustico wharf are a little cleaner now, thanks to a group called P.E.I. Scuba Divers.The group recently completed its first organized underwater garbage cleanup at the North Shore harbour.A handful of divers took the plunge, including Kelly Campbell, who says it’s a way of giving back to the community while also getting some time in the water.“Fishermen are such a great resource for us, kind of giving us tips…and places where we can go dive. At times, they’ll take us out on their boats to organize some diving trips,” Campbell told CBC’s Island Morning.“So to me, it’s nice to give back. And it’s a fun dive every once in a while to kind of dive with a little bit of a purpose.”‘It was surprisingly clean’The group, which is made up of recreational divers, dives underneath the boats close to the wharf, no more than 20 or 30 feet deep. Each diver carries a mesh bag to collect trash, focusing on debris that sits on top of the silt at the bottom.They found some of the trash you might expect from a fishing harbour, like broken boards or pieces from a trailer that may have broken off.But they also recovered a fisherman’s cellphone that had recently fallen into the water.Kelly Campbell, pictured here on a dive last year off Cavendish, says that, like him, all members of the group are recreational divers. (Submitted by Kelly Campbell)Campbell said they even came across some interesting finds. One of the divers found a decades-old Pepsi bottle that had been etched and didn’t have its label anymore.“There’s always some kind of cool treasure and old bottles and just kind of pieces of history down there that you can find as well that are kind of neat to see,” he said.The results of the cleanup surprised Campbell.“Over the years, you know, there might be a ton of stuff, some of it may be… silted over,” he said. “But, you know, for a working harbour, I mean, it was … surprisingly clean.”During the cleanup day in North Rustico, warmer waters made the dive easier. At about 12 C, the divers didn’t need hoods and some didn’t even wear gloves, though Campbell still wore them for safety.The dive season is over for the year, but Campbell said the group plans more wharf cleanups in the spring.Anyone interested in having the group organize a cleanup in their harbour can reach out through the P.E.I. Scuba Divers Facebook group to set something up.With files from Island Morning
Volunteer scuba divers clean up debris and unearth some treasures beneath P.E.I. wharf
