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In The News – What’s at the bottom of Lake Tahoe?: One team is preparing to show the world

September 9, 2025 | Member Submitted

Originally published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune, 09/04/2025, Written by Katelyn Welsh

Chase Petley rummages through the tool-laden shelves in his garage and proudly pulls out a cylinder marked by shattered glass.

“This is one of my favorite failures,” he says. It’s one of the 15 or so remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) he’s designed in his quest to explore the bottom of Lake Tahoe.

“If anyone knew what I knew about the bottom of the lake and [has] seen what I’ve seen,” Petley says, “it would be crazy not to be putting your whole life into building the equipment and grabbing the people, like I’ve done, to go and explore and show people.”

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Photo: Mysteries of the Deep

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