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Sheriff's Office responds to trio of distress calls on Green Lake Wednesday

Posted at 12:49 PM, Sep 19, 2019
and last updated 2019-09-19 13:52:12-04

GREEN LAKE - The Green Lake County Sheriff's Office responded to three individual calls on Big Green Lake involving citizens in distress on Wednesday, Sept. 18.

At 10:18 a.m., Green Lake Sheriff's E911 Center took a call of scuba divers in trouble north of the Horner Road boat landing. Law enforcement and emergency services/rescue responded to the scene when the scuba divers were immediately located safe. An investigation into the matter revealed that the scuba divers and a fishing vessel were at the legal distance limit required for diving when the fishing vessel, while trolling, pulled a down rigger weight with lure into the submerged divers, hooking one individual. The scuba diver immediately surfaced when concern developed over exposure to his rapid assent and the "bends." No injuries were reported concerning this incident and the diver was not transported for medical attention.

At 3:27 p.m., Green Lake Sheriff's E911 Center received a call reporting that a catamaran sailing vessel had tipped over and a male party was in distress. The location of this call was in the south-west corner of Big Green Lake near Highway K and Dodge Memorial Park. With emergency services/rescue paged and law enforcement responding, another citizen in a pontoon boat assisted the male party with the sailing boat and both came to shore. No injuries were reported and no medical transport took place.

At 4:30 p.m., Green Lake County Sheriff's E911 took a call from a citizen on a boat reporting that he had picked up a scuba diver, in the water, near Emerald Shores. The diver reported being under water for about an hour and that when he surfaced, the boat he dove from was gone and missing. The scuba diver was safe and was taken to shore. In an attempt to locate the boat, the Green Lake Sheriff's water patrol responded and did locate the boat near the Roger Williams Inn on the north shore. A determination was made that during increasing winds from the south, anchoring was lost and the boat, a 18 foot pontoon, floated over a half mile, adrift over deep water, until bottom was touched again by the anchors off of the north shore.

"While no injuries were reported as a result of the above three calls, things could have been much worse," Sheriff Podoll said. "What I appreciate about our community here is that everyone is watching and doesn't take a pass on getting involved or calling in to the Sheriff's Office."

While activity on lakes and rivers remains high, Podoll said he'd like to remind all users of waterways that preparation, awareness of weather and lake conditions and good safety practices are key in having a fun and successful outing.