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A Penticton-based professional diver says retrieving the dead cattle that drowned in Okanagan Lake over the Christmas break will be an extremely complex operation that could be very dangerous.

"It's a full-day operation just to get into the water and perform a dive," professional diver Kevin Aschhoff told iNFOnews.ca. "(The) primary concern is the safety of anyone put in there... it takes time and it takes experience to do something like this."

Aschhoff, who owns Oceantec Scuba in Kaleden, said depending on whether the lake is still frozen or not will make a big difference safety-wise, but even if the lake has thawed, the retrieval operation will still be very complex.

Sometime over Christmas, the cattle wandered onto the lake from a ranch on the Okanagan Indian Band. The cattle then fell through as the ice got thin.

Global News reported 31 cattle were lost at the cost of $100,000 to the rancher.

Aschhoff said pulling them out is no easy feat.

The professional diver said diving under ice is extremely dangerous because if something goes wrong a diver can't just head toward the surface.

Aschhoff said an ice dive would need a team of at least six, with two divers in the water and two people holding tethers. Once an animal was found it would have to be brought back through the hole cut in the ice.

"Navigating them back to where ever you've cut the access point, would definitely be something that is extremely dangerous, especially when you are working with divers who are tethered themselves," Aschhoff said.

If the lake has thawed, the salvage operation is less dangerous but still highly complex.

Aschhoff, who has been diving professionally in Okanagan Lake for almost 20 years, said the depth of the carcasses can create different issues.

"If they are moving around in the current it can be extremely difficult to find, especially after a couple of days," he said.

And shallow water has its own pitfalls.

"In a shallow bay when 50 head of cattle went through and stirred up the bottom it could be zero visibility," he said. "Where you go along and you feel your way through everything."

In deeper water, the visibility is much better but other issues arise.

"The deeper you go the shorter time you're allowed to be down there," Aschhoff said.

At 100 feet below, divers can only spend 15 minutes before having to come up.

Either way, it's not going to be a cheap operation.

Aschhoff estimated that five fully trained divers in these conditions would cost $5,000 a day and that price could double depending on what equipment they need.

The larger concern is that the longer the cattle stay decomposing in the lake, the more chance it has of affecting the water quality.

The B.C. Ministry of Environment didn't answer iNFOnews.ca questions when asked how long it would be before the dead cattle could begin impacting water quality.

Instead, the Ministry said it was working with the Okanagan Indian Band "to remove the cattle as quickly as possible" and is expected to begin in the next few days.

"The ministry is currently determining the most suitable landfill for disposal," the Ministry said.

The Ministry's statement also said that staff are developing a water sampling plan.

Aschhoff said there are several commercial divers in the region that would be qualified for the difficult job, but he was too small an operation to take it on.

"It's not just a simple 'in the water, go for a dive, find them, get them out,' it's much much more complicated," he said.

Okanagan Indian Band Chief Byron Louis did not return our request for comment.

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