Niagara-on-the-Lake Local photographer David Gilchrist, himself a diver, was out with his camera recently and came across a group of divers from the Niagara Regional Police marine unit participating in a training exercise off the dock at Navy Hall.
The Local reached out to Sgt. Jon Pilkington of the NRP for details on the dive, which was part of the unit’s regular weekly training routine.
“We train at various locations around the region where we are able to get exposure to different diving conditions for any of our policing functions we are required to perform,” Pilkington told The Local.
“That was a day for us to get exposure to zero visibility,” he went on, “some light current, and varied degree of conditions and obstacles on the bottom. And on that day we were using a scuba system.”
The river near Navy Hall has some unique features that lend themselves to such a training dive. Pilkington points out that about 25 to 30 feet from shore there is an eddy. The current closer to the dock is very gentle, moving in a southern direction, but further out it changes to flow north in the direction of Lake Ontario.
“It can pose some potential challenges to an inexperienced diver,” Pilkington says. But as he explains, there is not much likelihood anyone on this month’s training session at Navy Hall fit that bill.
To become a member of the marine unit, officers must already be second class constables, with experience on the road and on a uniform patrol. This usually takes at least three years. When an opening comes up, they apply to the unit almost like they are applying for a new job.
“We put a posting out,” he says, “there’s a resume package you have to submit, some other qualifications to meet and testing you have to pass. We follow the commercial diving requirements. Anyone applying has to have a minimum of an open water scuba certification, with a certain number of dives and bottom time accumulated. They have some experience coming in. We aren’t teaching them how to dive.”
As sergeant of the marine unit, Pilkington oversees a team of seven constables who are certified to dive. They operate out of the NRP’s support services division based in St. Catharines, but respond to situations across the region. Because of that reach, they also train across the region.
“We do various locations along the Niagara River,” he said. “Miller’s Creek in Fort Erie, some shore-based locations along the river, and places like Sherkston and the Welland Recreational Waterway. And off the shore, we jump in off the boat to get some different exposure to open water conditions. Anywhere we can get to that has water, we train there.”
The length of each training session depends on the number of divers who are fit to dive that day. And, of course, the weather is a major factor. Pilkington says each diver has his or her own comfort level under very cold conditions.
“Depending on the system we’re using for a dive,” Pilkington adds, “it all depends on the depth they are going to. The deeper they’re going, the more air they will consume. So if they’re on scuba, they are limited to the amount of air in their cylinder, compared to surface-supply, which provides air from the surface to the diver.”
The unit operates five patrol vessels, including two 9.4-metre Zodiacs as their primary patrol vessels, capable of heading into open water on Lakes Erie and Ontario.
They also have a smaller, 22-foot secondary patrol vessel based in the upper Niagara River, and two personal watercraft, or Sea-Doos.
“Those are for beach patrols and close shoreline searches,” says Pilkington, a 24-year veteran of the NRP and a 17-year veteran of the marine unit. “And we do have two additional smaller, tiller-style vessels that we can use for shoreline searches and to access areas like Lake Gibson and Lake Moodie.”
From about May through October, the marine unit is out on patrol vessels in Lakes Erie and Ontario and on the Niagara River. They work with both the Canadian and U.S. Coast Guards, as well as the Grimsby auxiliary marine rescue unit and the Port Colborne marine auxiliary rescue unit to respond to search and rescue missions.
Pilkington began diving recreationally in 1994, and it didn’t take long for him to realize that he could combine his hobby with his profession. His options, besides policing, included diving commercially. He, of course, chose the former.
“In our area,” he says, “we are fortunate that there are so many varied things going on between the marine patrols and the dives, and supporting our front-line officers. Most days, it doesn’t even feel like going to work.”