The Desert Mermaids: How Scuba Diving Is Saving Arizona

Ask any out-of-stater what they know about Arizona and they'll likely say one word: 'Desert". The state is notorious for its large swaths of dry, desolate land, but the truth is far more complicated.

Arizona's waterways are literally life savers. Without our lakes, rivers, and streams, clean water, life couldn't exist here.

One group is making sure we don't take them for granted.

The Salty Scuba Squad

Founded in 2021 after two scuba enthusiasts met. They began discussing the lack of scuba opportunities across the state, and began noticing absurd amounts of trash lying on the beds of our water ways. The two began diving for the express purpose of cleaning up this pollution, which piqued the interest of divers across the state.

In 2022, the organization was turned into a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit so that they could finally start accepting donations. This helped massively, by not only allowing the organization to do more through funding, but also in bringing awareness to the organization and its cause.

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What Does the SSS Do?

These days, the Salty Scuba Squad is a massive project. With hundreds of volunteers both above water scouting and below the waves removing trash, the project has gained a lot of traction these past few years.

The main goal is, of course, to remove trash from Arizona water ways, specifically the Salt river (where the organization gets its name from), but they also have a second objective: lost and found!

While searching the riverbed, many phones, smartwatches, and GoPros have been found. The SSS makes it their mission to collect these and try to get them back to their owners. This is, of course, a small task compared to saving Arizona's water supply, but it never goes underappreciated.

To help, DONATE or VOLUNTEER here.

[Salty Scuba Squad]

[Fox News 10]