AMY ALONZO/The Nevada Independent - The Nevada Independent
•6/24/2026
Dive team operations at Southern Nevada’s Lake Mead National Recreation Area, consistently ranked as one of America’s most deadly federal recreation sites, have quietly been suspended because of staffing shortages and unmet equipment and training needs.
The temporary suspension of the team — whose duties include recovering the bodies of drowning victims — was enacted without any public announcement in mid-May, according to a copy of the notification shared with The Nevada Independent and confirmed Friday by the National Park Service.
The suspension was necessary because dive team membership was “not sufficient to safely or reliably support dive operations in accordance with National Park Service standards, operational readiness expectations, and risk-management requirements,” according to a May 14 letter to dive employees that was “effective immediately.”
An assessment of staffing availability and an audit of the program’s safety, training, equipment and operations will be performed during the suspension.
The letter to dive team members did not indicate when the suspension might end.
During the suspension, dive-related incidents and requests will be performed by local agencies, including the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Search and Rescue Dive Team, according to a spokesperson for the National Park Service who did not provide their name.
The spokesperson did not answer additional questions from The Indy, including a planned date to reimplement the program, how many people served on the dive team, if the team was paid or volunteer, and how many incidents per year the team responds to.
Instead, the spokesperson wrote in an email, “The park remains committed to maintaining public safety and ensuring operational readiness through these cooperative arrangements.”
The recreation area has not been immune to federal cuts — at least a dozen staff members have been cut from its staff as President Donald Trump’s administration has whittled down the federal workforce.
More than 6 million people visit Lake Mead annually. Last year, a report ranked Lake Mead as one of the deadliest sites managed by the National Park Service in the country, with an average of 20 people dying in the park per year between 2007 and 2024, mostly by drowning.
A separate study found that approximately 7 percent of national park deaths in America between 2013 and 2023, including national recreation areas, occurred at Lake Mead, including a high number of suicides at the Hoover Dam and Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. Any deaths at those sites are also counted against the park.
Multiple deaths have already been reported at the recreation area this year, including a Las Vegas man who drowned after falling off an inflatable raft being pulled by a boat, a Henderson man who drowned after swimming without a lifejacket, a Las Vegas man who drowned while swimming and a boater who disappeared after jumping in the water to help another struggling swimmer.
This story was originally published by The Nevada Independent and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
