When I was looking for a diving partner in the Northwest Territories, I simply did a Google search and found an interesting local access cable TV show called “Shit I Found Diving in Yellowknife.” I reached out to the show’s host, a career Canadian military man in Yellowknife named Jeremy Macdonald. He is an enthusiastic scuba instructor that uses diving to help battle his symptoms of PTSD. He is now teaching other people with PTSD, reporting that being in the water gives them a great deal of relief. Jeremy and his friends are salt of the earth. They would give a stranger the coats off their backs. Originally from New Brunswick, he came to the north as a part of his military services. On his days off, he loves searching the Yellowknife and Cameron Rivers, finding interesting items and cleaning tons of garbage from the waterways. His TV show is a bit of a treasure hunt, fun day out with friends and environmental education.
I had the pleasure of participating in a couple of area surveys, photographing him as he made plans for future cleanups. We picked up bottles, a large tire and a lot of other miscellaneous trash. Jeremy never gets in the water without a bag for collecting.
Beyond educating people about cleaning up waterways, Jeremy and his partner Claire hope to make a change to the way the province deals with the environmental impacts of car tires. They find a lot of them discarded in local rivers. Right now people pay an impact fee when they buy tires, but there is no reward for proper disposal. As a result, they get tossed into water bodies across the province. If Jeremy and Claire have their way, the province will handle things differently, perhaps offering a partial return of a deposit for the proper disposal of tires.
If you want to see Jeremy’s show, check out his Facebook page and follow his group’s progress.
