SCUBA group working to remove tires from Puget Sound

PUGET SOUND, Wash. – A scuba diving group has launched a mission to locate and remove hundreds of thousands of tires from Puget Sound.

KOMO reports the tires were installed in the 1970’s as artificial reefs to provide fish habitat.

But it has since been learned that chemicals toxic to marine life leech from the tires.

The Washington Scuba Alliance has teamed with a marine survey company to use radar to locate tire reefs in the Sound and Hood Canal.

They expect to find up to 500,000 tires and then will seek funding to remove them.