SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station Volunteer Dive Team

Many OLA members and the Otsego Lake community may not know that a Volunteer Dive Team from the Biological Field Station (BFS) even exists or what they do for Otsego Lake. The team was formed in 1998 when Master Diver Dale Webster made a request to become involved with the BFS’s research projects through diving. Since that time, the team has grown to include about 12 divers who volunteer their time throughout the year including ice dives in the winter to maintain their proficiency. During the early spring and late fall, the team sets out and retrieves some 20 No Wake Zone buoys from around the lake. During the summer months, the team assists the BFS with their on-going research projects and assists the Village of Cooperstown in cleaning out (“pigging”) any zebra mussels inside the Village’s water intake line which runs under Otsego Lake and the Susquehanna River. Additionally, the dive team has recently been busy locating, surveying and identifying underwater cultural resources (wrecks). The dive team also stands by to assist the local fire departments in water rescue emergencies.

The dive team consists of highly trained, experienced, dedicated, and hardworking members from all walks of life. The dive team has two Dive Masters (Master Divers with dive team leadership training), several Master Divers (requires several diving specialties), and Open Water Divers. The Master Divers all have advance and rescue training and are trained in at least five specialty diving areas. The Master Divers are all ice, deep, and night trained plus their other specialties include a mix of search & recovery diving, drift diving, multilevel diving, altitude diving, dry suit diving, wreck diving, boat diving, buoyancy diving, and equipment specialist. The divers purchase and maintain their own equipment which includes expensive diving vests and air tank, weight belts, wet or dry suit, mask, fins, gloves, and assorted other safety equipment.

The current active 2014 BFS team members are:

Paul Lord: Master SCUBA Diver Trainer & Dive Master.
Jim Vogler: Open Water SCUBA Instructor. Jim has been diving with us for the last six years and assists Paul Lord with all aspects of BFS diving. He is the first of the BFS volunteer divers to earn a dive leadership certification. Jim works for the biology department at SUNY-Oneonta and he is married to Donna Vogler, a biology professor at SUNY-Oneonta.

Dale Webster: Master SCUBA Diver; 16th year as volunteer diver; Dale’s request to become involved with BFS research through diving prompted establishment of the team in 1998. Dale works on campus at SUNY-Oneonta as a carpenter and sells real estate.

Brian Benjamin: Master Diver.

Lee Ferrara: Master SCUBA Diver who is in his 14th year as volunteer diver. Lee is a high school science teacher in Oneonta.

Ed Lentz: Rescue and Ice Diver. Ed has been diving with us for the last eight years and still does ice dives in a wetsuit. Ed is a patent attorney and a past recipient of the OCCA conservationist of the year award.

Bjorn (BJ) Eilertsen: Rescue, Multilevel, and Ice Diver. BJ has been diving with the BFS for the last six years. He owns and manages a construction company.

Amanda Barber: Rescue Diver.

Joseph W. Zarzynski: “Zarr” is a board-certified underwater archaeologist, scientific diver, author, documentary film producer, and former educator. He has been diving with us for the past four years.

Wayne Bunn: Recently retired civil engineer and NYS certified boat operator. Wayne tends for the team.

Timothy Pokorny: He is a NYS certified boat operator. Tim tends for the dive team.

The dive team was awarded the Otsego Lake Association’s Lake Citizen Award in 2009 which is given each year to an individual or organization that works to protect and preserve Otsego Lake.

Next time you see the 40-foot BFS barge on the lake with the dive team on board, toot your horn, wave, and thank them for the great job that they do for Otsego Lake. However, please stay at least 100 feet away from the barge since the divers may be underwater performing their work. The “divers in the water” flag is a red square flag with a white diagonal strip.