FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) — A team of divers participated in a deep-sea cleanup to help environmental cleanup efforts in Florida.
Crews pulled out over one thousand pounds of debris from ten artificial reef sites off the coast of Destin-Fort Walton Beach.
The county’s natural resources team partnered with the Force Blue organization for the mission.
“We are, I believe, a team of five-ish divers, and so trying to tackle that on our own can be difficult. So getting help from Force Blue is wonderful,” said diver Danielle Lasseigne.
Twelve miles of fishing line was found in the debris, which can pose a serious threat to marine life.
“We’ve had cases where we’ve rescued turtles, where it’s ten to 20 pounds of fishing line,” said diver Cheri Dexter.
Earlier this week, crews in Navarre Beach rescued a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle caught in fishing line.
Lasseigne shared her thoughts on working to help the environment with others.
:Working with these people, you get to meet people who are also passionate about protecting our environment, wanting to make it better for future people and for future generations, so that way they can enjoy it as well,” she said.
The dive was the teams’ sixth reef cleanup together, with more missions planned in the future.
Copyright 2026 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.