By Jock Koustow | Beacon Explores!

Have you ever had the feeling while swimming in Bass Lake that you were being watched from below? As it turns out there’s a good reason for that.

A team of local scuba divers recently took to the chilly waters of Bass Lake to see what they could see.

Armed with waterproof flashlights, metal detectors, and sieves, the divers hoped to recover lost fishing tackle, phones, and whatever else pleasure boaters lost in the water.

What they emerged with gives a much clearer picture of people drop while enjoying the lake.

“We figured we’d find canoes and anchors,” said dive organizer Webb Foote. “What we found were eyeglasses, or just glasses. Reading glasses, distance vision glasses, bifocals – which I believe help with both reading and distance – sunglasses, even a few pair of beer goggles.”

Foote said he and his friends, six of them in all, like to dive this time of year because the water is generally clearer and many of the weeds have died back.

He said they deployed their long-poled sieves in the muck and scooped at random.

“We were shocked at the number of glasses we found,” he said. “Not literally shocked. That’s not good in water.”

Foote speculated that people lost their eyewear while recreating in or on the lake.

“We’re doing tests to see if that’s what happened,” he said. “It’s possible people just got fed up with their spectacles and tossed them in on purpose. We’re just not sure.”

Foote said the eye-catching collection will be on display at the Bass Lake Explorers Club in the near future. Anyone who may have lost their glasses is encouraged to stop by and claim them. Those pairs not retrieved will be donated to the Michiana Humane Society.