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One scuba diving organization is working to reverse that trend and keep Northern Nevada’s waters clean.

A group of SCUBA professionals is working to reduce the amount of trash in Lake Tahoe.

Watch News 4-Fox 11’s Sky Vision Drone Team dive with Clean Up the Lake at Donner Lake with executive director Colin West.

Visitors left behind footprints in the form of trash, but fortunately, Tahoe has its own unique underwater trashman with a team of scuba diving volunteers.

The world’s largest landfill floats as a garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean. But even beyond our Earth’s oceans, lakes, like crystal-blue Lake Tahoe, are also on the decline because of plastic trash.

Tahoe’s beauty and its cold, clear waters draw visitors to its increasingly crowded and urbanized shoreline and out onto the lake itself. Unfortunately visitors have been leaving more than just footprints.

The Clean Up The Lake dive teams completed a circumnavigated SCUBA clean up of Donner Lake, covering every inch of the 8 mile shoreline at depths of 0-25 feet removing all the smaller trash they could find.

“It’s like a trash can. There are 12 beer cans within arm’s reach, a little grove of plastic cups and hats that are sitting there, probably like 75 tennis balls we pulled out.”

If you’ve ever wondered how much trash is at the bottom of Lake Tahoe, Colin West has the answer, at least part of it.