Seattle woman cleaning up Puget Sound one battery at a time

A Seattle woman has found her inspiration at the bottom of
Puget Sound in the form of old boat batteries.

“At first, you see everything beautiful and then realize
that everything beautiful is growing on something. And
then you realize that something is oftentimes human debris
or trash.”

Laura James has lived in the Seattle area most of her
life and been an avid scuba diver for more than two
decades. After swimming by a debris field for years,
Laura decided she needed to do something.

James started by targeting all the old batteries that had
been sitting on the Sound floor for so long that many
divers had been using them as undersea landmarks.

“I realized that one of these batteries, actually two
separate batteries, were sitting next to two octopus dens
that would soon have eggs in them. That was just like ‘We
have got to get these things out of there.'”

James got together with some of her diver buddies and
started hauling them up with float bags and milk crates.
They let the batteries sit in shallow water for awhile so
the critters evacuate and then they load them into a truck
headed for an environmentally friendly battery recycling
center.

James and her friends have managed to bring up 20
batteries or about 1,000 pounds of lead so far and she
says she can already see a real difference in the
underwater landscape.

“All of those batteries were old. They were all from old
Seacrest Marina. We don’t see a lot of new batteries. So
obviously people’s mentality has changed with regards to
discarding in the ocean.”

She’s made so much progress, she says it’s getting harder
and harder to even find an old battery to haul up. So now,
James says she’s moving on to sheets of plastic, like
tarps and boat covers, that have made their way into the
water.

“As divers, we’re the last stand for cleaning this stuff
up. If it’s still on the shoreline, anyone can pick it up,
but once it gets underwater, who’s going to go clean it
up?”

James has also made it her mission to get others involved
in her clean-up efforts by letting everyone know about her
crusade online.

“I’ve gotten some emails from the East Coast and from
Canada, so it’s pretty inspiring. It kind of inspires me
to keep doing it.”

It’s a great way for divers to work together to take
care of the landscape they love, but if you’re not ready
to jump in yourself, there is a lot you can do to
help.

“The biggest thing is for everybody, all of us, to make
sure the trash doesn’t get to the water in the first
place.”

You can find out more about Laura’s work online at her blog. You can also email her with questions
or words of encouragement.

97.3 KIRO FM Reporter Kim Shepard contributed to this
report.