Under Pressure

The new West Virginia Division of Natural Resources law enforcement dive team helps in tough times and tough conditions.

This story was originally published in the May 2025 issue of Wonderful West Virginia. To subscribe, visit wonderfulwv.com.

Written by Laura Jackson

Photos Courtesy of J.B. SMITH, Natural Resources Police

West Virginia’s topography has been carved by rivers. From the Cheat to the Greenbrier to the New, water is all around, offering respite and recreation, generating revenue, and providing a home to countless species. It’s hard to go anywhere in the Mountain State without passing a stream, river, or lake.

Unfortunately, this also means that, sometimes, things go wrong. Accidents happen, property gets lost, and people go missing. No one wants to think about it, but when tragedy does strike, a newly formed team of underwater experts is ready to help.

Colonel Bobby Cales, chief of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) Law Enforcement Section, began organizing the initiative in 2023. “Our dive team plays a critical role in ensuring public safety by aiding in the investigation of underwater incidents,” Cales says. “This specialized unit is trained to conduct search and recovery operations in various aquatic environments on our rivers, lakes, and creeks, and their expertise has already proven to be an essential asset for our agency in locating evidence, recovering drowning victims, and assisting in rescue operations.”

Getting Their Feet Wet

The unit is led by its coordinator, J.B. Smith, a Natural Resources Police (NRP) officer in the WVDNR Law Enforcement Section. Previously, Smith worked for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, which had a statewide dive team of its own and opened the door for him to become an instructor. “They put me and a number of officers through instructor school,” he says. “Normally, in a state agency, you have to hire an outside entity to train your people, but it’s different with a state police academy. I already had a lifetime certification when I got to West Virginia.”

When it came time to organize the NRP dive team in West Virginia, Cales interviewed potential divers. He hired nine from around the state, in addition to Smith, who served as the team instructor. However, it takes more than one instructor to teach a course, so the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources’ Aquatic Investigations and Recovery Team donated assistant instructors for the training course. “Because we wanted to put on a class for a large number of individuals, they were gracious enough to donate their time and their instructors,” Smith says. “Ten of us went down to South Carolina for two weeks, and they assisted me in instructing the open water and initial diving courses. It was really cool to see two state agencies put that together.”

In the fall of 2023, the team went through the same basic open water scuba class all divers take. Divers can go on to obtain a variety of certifications, but beginners start in a swimming pool, where they learn to assemble dive equipment, clear their ears and masks, and control buoyancy. Divers are taught how to deal with problems that might arise as well as how to plan for safe dives by staying within certain depth ranges and accounting for gases that accumulate in the blood during a dive. Upon completion of coursework, divers must pass a written test and a series of certification dives, usually done in quarries and lakes.

“You’ve just got to get experience,” Smith says of the training. “You can’t do any of this without being comfortable underwater. And if you can’t be comfortable as an open water diver, the rest of it is just not worth it. So once we get everybody through open water training, then we start adding on the specialties.” Certifications include master diver, rescue diver, and enriched air diver—which utilizes a gas called nitrox that has less nitrogen than the air in open water divers’ tanks.

Publicly launched with an announcement by then-Governor Jim Justice in July 2024, the new dive team has been busy since its inception. The team’s nine divers are scattered across the state to respond to law enforcement boating-related fatalities and to recover evidence and enforce safe boating practices. While the NRP’s dive team is the lead entity on all boating-related accidents, it also assists West Virginia State Police divers as well as those from local police departments.

“Whether it’s a fatality or a wreck or whatever it may be, we do any diving related to that, and then we assist any other entities that need help,” Smith says. This may include assisting state police or a sheriff’s office with a recovery as well as locating a vehicle or other evidence.

Team members continue to improve and add to their dive skills and accumulate experience. “We get together and train on a regular basis all across the state, usually at a different location every month,” Smith says. “And we add a skill or a specialty, whether it’s full-face mask or dry suit—whatever it may be. And then we’re still working on some things. There’s a specific number of dives they have to get under their belts before we move them over to the professional side of diving.”

Deep and Dark

The team never knows what conditions it’ll face in the water. Many novice civilian divers enjoy practicing their newfound skills in warm, clear Caribbean waters, where currents are minimal. In West Virginia, divers can often find favorable conditions at Summersville Lake, known for its relative clarity. Many take their open water certification tests at Mount Storm Lake in Tucker County. The lake is warmed by discharged water from the Mount Storm Power Station, even in freezing weather.

However, the NRP dive team often deals with cold temperatures and low visibility. “Conditions around the state vary,” Smith says. “One day we were fortunate and had 25 feet of visibility on the Ohio River when we were retrieving some equipment. But we did some training down at Bluestone Lake, and it was like diving in a mud hole. It’s like being in a cup of coffee. You cannot see.”

To further complicate things, new divers must learn to hover in the water by obtaining neutral buoyancy. It’s a steep learning curve, and when they touch the bottom, they stir up thick clouds of silt and mud. However, due to the nature of the work, Smith’s divers may have to dive blind, too. “What we’re looking for is on the bottom,” he says. “So as much as we like to keep the water clear, we’ll probably have to disturb the bottom.”

Underwater, the divers use what’s known as a jackstay search pattern, using fixed and moving guide lines. As on land, following a grid is the most accurate way to search, as it completely covers the search area and prevents missed sections and redundancy. Two divers conduct the search using two lines that go to the surface and one that is stretched out on the bottom. The latter is moved incrementally, according to the size of the object of the search.

“When you’re covering much smaller amounts of water at a time, you stir up way more silt,” Smith says. “So oftentimes, I swim with my eyes closed, because I can’t see anything. You’ve got one hand holding on the line, and one hand is feeling the bottom the whole way. Sometimes we utilize a metal detector.”

In an inaugural demonstration in July 2024, the team was able to retrieve from Bluestone Lake a chew bone belonging to former Governor Jim Justice’s dog, Babydog.

“He was very instrumental,” Smith says of former governor Justice. “He has great ties with the state of South Carolina, and he’s been incredibly supportive in this whole endeavor. We’re definitely grateful for that.”

Finding Closure

It’s a difficult job, but the team has found purpose in helping West Virginians in tough times. Most of the work happens underwater, which can leave potential victims’ families feeling as though progress has stalled, but officers on the surface can stay in communication with loved ones and explain what is happening at depth, what conditions searchers might face, and how the search will unfold.

Colonel Cales has been particularly impressed by the dive team’s capabilities, not only in its operational effectiveness but also in the sense of comfort and closure it provides to families. Likewise, the divers take pride in their work and their contributions during crises.

“We get to see the impact that a dive team has on a family,” Smith says. “It’s incredibly tragic when someone drowns. A lot of times it’s a family affair—a fun day that ends horribly. Being able to provide that service to the citizens is incredible. As much as we don’t want to be there, knowing that we can help them is pretty great. And I think that the folks that we’ve been able to work with have really appreciated it.”