Commercial diver and New England Milfoil owner, Cliff Cabral, and his team of certified divers have a combined 55 years of commercial diving experience. They have spent thousands of hours under water removing literally tons of milfoil from New England lakes and ponds. We have the best trained and most experienced dive crews in the industry.
Diver Assisted Suction Harvesting (DASH) Method: In densely infested areas, we recommend the use of one of our DASH boats/teams. In this method, plants are uprooted by hand by the diver, making sure to remove as much of the root material as possible, and then they are “fed” into the hose of the suction harvester. The plants are discharged into net bags, drained and loaded onto either our DASH boat or our shuttle boat and hauled away to a dump site.
Hand Pulling Method: In areas where there are fewer, smaller plants and/or plants are single plants far apart from each other, the option to drop a single diver in the water with a catch bag to contain the plants he/she pulls.
The amount of milfoil that can be removed each day varies depending on the density of the plants, the bottom (whether it’s sandy/soft or firm/hard) will determine how hard it will be to pull each plant, the depth of water and the fragility of the plants. Throughout the process, it is important to reduce the chances of the plant breaking off and replanting itself (fragmenting).
New England Milfoil has been successful removing large areas of infestation in places where others only saw chemically treating as an option; for less money and without introducing poison into the waterbody.
New England Milfoil is fully OSHA compliant, property insured and our divers and tenders are highly skilled. Our divers have received advanced dive training making them more comfortable, and safe, in the water which directly translates into results. Certifications include: Certified Hookah Divers, Weed Divers, Nitrox Divers, Advanced Open Water Divers, have Completed Commercial Diver Safety Course & Completed Commercial Tending Safety Course, have their Commercial Boaters Licenses, First Aid & CPR Certifications.