Gracie, a yellow labrodor trained for water search and recovery, looks toward an "area of scent" on Minnesota's Big Marine Lake.  With Gracie's help, the Search and Recovery team tries to narrow the search for a "victim" in this training excercise. The dive team waits on shore as Gracie works. - Photo by Ann Runstrom

La Crosse FRO St. Croix River Dive Team members, Scott Yess and Ann Runstrom attended Search and Recovery dive training at Big Marine Lake near Scandia, MN, July 12, 2006. 

Although their work on the dive team is primarily limited to native mussel restoration efforts, maintaining skills as a diver requires practice. The training provided just that. 

The National Park Service organized the training which included certified Search and Rescue (SAR) canines.  Dive team members practiced searching underwater with no visibility and communicating via rope tugs to a team on shore. 

The diver, and those on shore, worked to document the area searched and where items were found.  Searches were conducted in an organized manner so that areas that were searched were recorded and efforts were not duplicated.

These skills can be used to search and recover anything underwater, including mussel beds, and will be valuable for use during monitoring and recovery efforts of native mussel species. 

In addition to the dive training, participants learned about the usefulness of SAR dogs at the scene of a suspected drowning. The dogs can pick up scent that comes up out of the water from decomposing flesh and will signal their handler when they do.  This aids the recovery team in narrowing the focus of the underwater search.