Treasures and trash: Halifax man highlights what lies beneath Nova Scotia waters

Sean McMullen holds up a small glass bottle to his face as he balances on the stairs of a wooden dock, a snorkel dangling from his head.

He's brought out an array of green, brown and clear bottles from misty Terence Bay, about 30 kilometres south of Halifax.

"This one's interesting though, I've never seen a bottle like this," said McMullen as he shakes watery mud out of the small vessel.

The word "Clenwood" can be seen on the glass, although faintly. Small shells cling to its sides.

It's a new lead to investigate, and a unique find to add to McMullen's growing collection of treasures.

The Halifax photographer has been snorkeling and free-diving since he learned from his dad as a teenager. 

But he only started filming his underwater adventures with a GoPro this May as a way to pass the time with a pandemic project.

"It just kind of morphed and took a life of its own, and it just kind of became this obsession," McMullen said.

He has quite a following on Instagram and YouTube, where he shows off everything he finds.

He said people often leave comments when they recognize a certain item and when it was made, or he will post his finds to social media groups to find out more.

That's where he found out some "pretty rare" clay pipes he'd picked up were also from around 1840 or 1850, distinguished by their intricate floral designs.

Another exciting find was a Whelan & Ferguson soda bottle, which predates the Titanic and Halifax Explosion. It was created by a Halifax company that no longer exists, and McMullen had never heard of until he started researching.

"You look at different places in coves and you appreciate the beauty of what it is you're looking at, and then you realize there's a lot of stuff underneath this water," McMullen said.

"You name it, it's probably there."

While he hasn't found anything old enough to be museum material just yet, McMullen said he's always open about what he finds and would be happy to hand over something special.

But McMullen's also bringing up more than treasures in his yellow mesh bag.

As he swims, McMullen also pulls garbage like plastic, beer cans, old gloves, pop bottles, and once a whole rusting bicycle out of the ocean. 

McMullen said he often feels sad surveying the muddy bottoms of coves and shoreline around Nova Scotia, but also motivated to clean up what he can.

Although he's just one person, he said it feels good to know at the end of the day there's "0.01 per cent" less trash in the water.

He now groups everything together for a picture to quantify the sheer amount he brings up every time. McMullen said it gives people a new perspective to the picturesque sites they come from, like Peggys Cove.

"Maybe it'll motivate other people like myself who want to make a difference," he said. "You know, a lot of people do take trash off highways or in neighbourhoods. I'm just taking care of the ocean neighbourhood."

McMullen has already gotten to one scuba diver: his father Jonathan McMullen.

Jonathan often goes on wreck dives and enjoys looking at interesting things, but seeing his son take things from an ecological perspective has inspired him to "keep up" by hauling trash out himself. That includes a kitchen sink.

Jonathan said it's often the father teaching the son new things, but in their case McMullen has shown him how to be a more responsible underwater visitor.

"It's ... kind of rekindled my passion for diving in a different way," he said.

When the weather cools off this fall, McMullen plans to get his diving certificate. Then, fitted out with a dry suit to keep warm, he can take his search to new depths.