Photo: CTV

Coast Guard dive team in Vancouver to be eliminated.

B.C.'s Coast Guard dive team is being eliminated.

Members disregarded a gag order on the information to tell CTV they worry that lives will be lost.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans apparently made the decision because the dive team is not part of the Coast Guard's mandate.

"I'm shocked. It's a step backwards in conducting search and rescue," retired Coast Guard commander Fred Moxey told CTV.

"Overturned boats, overturned vessels, cars, that's what happens in and around the Vancouver area, and the diving capability is needed."

The team was cut in 2001 but was brought back after two high-profile fatalities.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also reopened Vancouver's Coast Guard station last year after it was closed by the Conservative government in 2013. The Kitsilano base will stay open despite the dive team being cut.

– with files from CTV Vancouver