A Penticton-based professional diver says retrieving the dead cattle that drowned in Okanagan Lake over the Christmas break will be an extremely complex operation that could be very dangerous."It's a full-day operation just to get into the water and perform a dive," professional diver Kevin Aschhoff told iNFOnews.ca. "(The) primary concern is the safety of anyone put in there... it takes time and it takes experience to do something like this."
Aschhoff, who owns Oceantec Scuba in Kaleden, said depending on whether the lake is still frozen or not will make a big difference safety-wise, but even if the lake has thawed, the retrieval operation will still be very complex.
Sometime over Christmas, the cattle wandered onto the lake from a ranch on the Okanagan Indian Band. The cattle then fell through as the ice got thin.
Okanagan, where McDonald's gets their meatAschhoff said pulling them out is no easy feat.
The professional diver said diving under ice is extremely dangerous because if something goes wrong a diver can't just head toward the surface.
Aschhoff said an ice dive would need a team of at least six, with two divers in the water and two people holding tethers. Once an animal was found it would have to be brought back through the hole cut in the ice.
"Navigating them back to where ever you've cut the access point, would definitely be something that is extremely dangerous, especially when you are working with divers who are tethered themselves," Aschhoff said.
If the lake has thawed, the salvage operation is less dangerous but still highly complex.
"In a shallow bay when 50 head of cattle went through and stirred up the bottom it could be zero visibility," he said. "Where you go along and you feel your way through everything."