By Gregg Stanton and contributors

Gregg Stanton

Back to Underwater Wakulla Archive

Click on the date of a column to jump directly to it.

January 5, 2012

Exotic dive destinations

Exotic dive destinations exist around the world, from a tropical get-away with warm clear water teaming with marine life to shipwrecks in cold, but exciting historic sites.
Regardless of your diving get-away pleasure, travel usually involves airlines. I travel on airlines and assist visitors to our center who come from around the world on airlines. I find there are challenges that can be very distracting from that anticipated diving vacation.
To assure success, take out travel insurance, such that when flights are canceled or disaster strikes, you can at least recover your expenses. Be sure your home owner’s insurance will cover lost luggage and personal diving equipment that may go missing when you get there.
And absolutely carry Dive Insurance to cover the remote chance you are injured and require medical transport and hyperbaric treatment while you are away.
Luggage restrictions have become a problem to divers who require quite a load of equipment to have fun underwater. Dive companies have developed ultra-light regulators, buoyancy compensators, fins and even wet suits that fit in your carry-on luggage. Tanks and weights can be rented at the local dive store.
Many of my clients bring their rebreathers, a practice for which we advise some caution. Our last client from Finland arrived recently but his check-in luggage did not. Several days later, his bag arrived empty of a $10,000 rebreather. Fortunately, his travel insurance may have covered him.
My problem traveling with rebreathers was that the TSA inspectors were not familiar with the technology. Since I refused to check my rig for fear of theft, I faced the inspectors while loading the flight. I planned an extra hour when going through the line.
They would invariably pull me out of the line, take me and my bag to the back room and there I would provide a lecture on the rebreather. Most were just fascinated with the technology, but some told me it looked too much like a bomb, too many wires and blinking lights to safely take on an airline.
Those who had little time to learn, pressed their concerns by restricting my travel, taking components off the flight, or just diverting my rig such that it would arrive very late and often dismantled, missing parts or broken. I soon learned airline travel for the rebreather diver is not advised. I began driving to diving destinations whenever possible.
During the summer months, many of our Wakulla County divers drive to the Florida Keys, our tropical diving destination, where warm clear water beckons good spear fishing and underwater photography.
During the winter, many of those in South Florida reciprocate by heading northward to our clear, calm and constant temperature springs and caves. Diving destinations permit folks to travel and enjoy different cultures while pursuing their passion for exploring the underwater world.
And we have much to offer right here in Wakulla County.

Back to list of columns

January 12, 2012

Dive In Day at the Florida Capitol

Tuesday, Jan. 10- was Dive In Day at the Florida Capitol, an event sponsored by the Dive Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA). Retail diving operations had an opportunity to display their offerings and support regulations that promote our industry.
Fresh out of a 160-foot dive and followed by a 200-foot dive with my deep diving rebreather class from Switzerland, I entered this event somewhat tired and skeptical. We, the Florida diving support community, face daunting challenges. Will the Florida Legislature care?
My summer diving community is an open water, open circuit group, either scalloping or spearfishing. Both are coming off a Gulf spill tragedy that did not quite make it to Wakulla County physically, but did emotionally.
Most local folks just quit diving, or went south for their underwater adventures, leaving the support facilities in the North Florida area with little action (income). We went for weeks with no customers. New facilities like ours did not qualify for compensation as we did not have a year of operations with which to compare our losses.
Last summer was better, but still way under the forecasted potential.
Over the last year we have seen a migration away from the area of qualified dive boats with ever more restrictive fishing regulations. Of course protecting the fishery is important, but every restriction sends another boat and their business elsewhere.
What this community needs is a paradigm shift. A paradigm shift is a dramatic shift in the way we do something or in a technology. A classic example is the analog watch that dominated the world for centuries shifting to the inexpensive digital watch that altered the industry.
Offshore spearfishing is costly because the diving technology is heavy, bulky and awkward requiring a large footprint (and thus a large and expensive boat). We need to shrink this footprint to bring this community to their dive sites with less expense. I will expand on this in a later column.
My winter diving community is an overhead and often rebreather group, either strolling through countless known underwater passages or exploring and mapping new ones. Most are international and seek training from us. They were immune to the Gulf spill as our aquifer was unaffected by ocean pollutants.
Unlike our summer community, these folks seek a diving destination. For example, during the past week Keith Tice from Zürich, Switzerland, has been telling me about the many diving destinations he has visited, from the Red Sea to the Maldives. He is convinced we have such a destination right here in Wakulla County and will say so next week at the Public Hearing on opening Wakulla Springs State Park to equal access diving, hosted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 19, at the Livestock Pavilion next to the Crawfordville Fire Department.
He recognized Wakulla County’s unique contribution to the Cave Diver’s Trail that stretches from Marianna through Wakulla to Peacock Springs State Park, High Springs, Eagles Nest and ending in Weeki–Wachi Springs.
I hope the seeds I planted on Dive-In Days at the Capitol will encourage our Legislature to recognize and support the job creating economic opportunity people who enjoy underwater adventure bring to our state and especially to Wakulla County.

Back to list of columns

January 19, 2012

Commercial Diving in Wakulla Springs State Park?

Wakulla Springs from the air

Information has recently surfaced that commercial diving is part of an appeal to open Wakulla Springs State Park to equal access diving. This opens an interesting can of worms, so to speak.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) define and regulate employment safety conditions, and specifically, in the case of compressed-gas diving, privately employed divers. OSHA has four specific exemptions to their Commercial Diving Standards: recreational instruction, police, human subjects, and scientific diving. Failure to meet the specifications of the exemption defaults the exemption, requiring the participant to comply with the full Commercial Diving Standard.
Compliance to the OSHA Commercial Diving Standards in Wakulla Springs will mean locating a hyperbaric chamber within 5 minutes of the deep dive sites, surface and in-water support tenders staffing all dives, J-valves on all scuba cylinders, etc. (the list goes on). Since no one wants to follow these restrictions, keeping the exemptions is very important.
The first and the last exemption may apply to diving at Wakulla Springs. Recreational diving is not regulated as those involved are not employed. Private diving instructors or guides have no employer and are thus also not regulated or included as commercial divers. Those employed instructors or guides by a company must abide by limitations set forth by the exemption to maintain the exemption from the Commercial Diving Standards. These limitations may restrict them to work in shallower sites for example.
Scientific Diving is even more tightly regulated if they are to maintain an exemption from the OSHA Commercial Diving Standard. Their activity must be managed by a Safe Practice Manual promulgated by an autonomous Diving Control Board made up of active Diving Scientists for the sole purpose of non-proprietary data collection. Failure to meet any of these requirements defaults their activity back to those controlled by the OSHA Commercial Diving Standards.
I present these observations to clarify a published statement regarding the intentions of parties proposing to AND currently controlling diving at Wakulla Springs State Park, each operating under a different exemption to the OSHA Commercial Diving Standards. It seems rather like the pot calling the kettle black.
The tragic reality of this emotional response to a practical job-creating and park supporting opportunity is that both parties ride in the same boat. Both are members of or support the same conservation organizations, support the preservation of Wakulla Springs State Park as a “gem” and seek to locate funds to keep the park thriving. Both also have significant resources which will be diverted if the other side wins. I see a great cartoon where there are 2 people fighting in a small boat, each landing blows that destabilize their sinking craft while real threats to Wakulla Springs watch amusedly from the shore.
How can we convince folks that everyone can win if we work together, combining the offer of much needed funds from a willing diving public to preserve and protect, (just let us in to see), with those who have the professional credentials (Archaeologists, Paleontologists, Hydrologists, Biologists) to actually make it happen. Why has this become so polarized?
See you at the public hearing.
Gregg Stanton

Back to list of columns

January 26, 2012

Technical divers vs. Recreational divers

At the recent meeting, hosted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection last week, to get public opinion on opening Wakulla Springs State Park to scuba diving, those opposed were confused between two terms that neither side adequately defined.
Like so many diverse communities, those who seek adventure underwater function very differently depending upon their mission and their environment. Last week I defined what is commercial diving (working for a profit while employed by another) and those who have an exemption from the OSHA Commercial Diving Standards. But I did not expand on how the recreational diving community is defined.
To play is to recreate. Hiking, swimming, bird watching and canoeing, just to mention a few of the many recreational pursuits we love to engage in for fun, are what bring us to our State Park System. Scuba diving is no different. A person who aspires to travel the length of the Appalachian Trail from Florida to Maine, will begin as a novice with basic hiking skills perhaps gained in the Boy or Girl Scouts.
As they gain confidence, physical endurance and experience their performance improves efficiency and safety over many years. Successively, more difficult trails are tried until one day the goal is reached, a personal achievement is accomplished. Along the way, better technology is accumulated and skills perfected.
Basic scuba is also trained in the Scouting programs and elsewhere in universities and private stores. These beginners are provided with a permit to begin their recreational journey to achieve personal achievements above or below the water.
I took my kids to the ski slopes at an early age. There we all trained and stayed on the beginner slopes. As our skills improved we began to use progressively more challenging hills, falling on many occasions, but with improved technology and training, eventually, we mastered the black diamond runs.
This arbitrary term means nothing to a non-skier. By inference however, you may be assured the slope is very steep and challenging.
Like so many other recreational communities, scuba diving has defined their recreation in several ways. One I currently favor is calling a Rec (recreational) diver as one who solves their problem at the surface. When a problem presents itself, the individual applies technology that enables them to go straight to the surface. These skills and technology are taught in basic scuba.
A Tec (technical) diver is a person who usually resolves their problems at depth, permitting themselves the ability to dive beyond the easy access to the surface. Considerably more complex and expensive technology and skills are required for the Tec diver to achieve this type of diving safety. Examples of this type of recreational diving include under-ice diving, decompression diving, wreck diving and, yes, cave diving.
Millions of people around the world scuba dive. Many aspire to share recreational underwater adventure. These people seek technology and training to gain advanced skills to permit them access and enjoyment in beautiful environments.
A speaker presenting late at the meeting said only technical divers would be expected to dive the caves in the Wakulla Springs State Park like they currently do at many other State Parks. Of course the diving public attending understood these recreational divers would be Tec divers, but those opposed to opening Wakulla Springs do not understand our terminology.
Our apologies. As with all recreational activity, we advocate a person should be allowed to participate to the limit of their training, as documented by certification. To do otherwise is to invite counterproductive injury.

Back to list of columns

February 2, 2012

The modern BCD (buoyancy compensator)

By Travis Kersting

A vast selection of options is available to properly personalize your car today.
Most cars come with a standard package of conveniences including power locks, mirrors and windows while others such as GPS can be added if not already included. Safety features, like airbags, are now available on nearly every model, but just 15 years ago they were rare.
Diving is no different. Safety has come full circle and now a large portion of the kit you carry is there to function as your personal “airbag.”
Did you learn to dive 40 or 50 years ago? If so, you may have learned to dive without a “buoyancy compensator” or BCD. Now it’s uncommon to see a diver without one.
The modern BCD functions is much more than a buoyancy device. Most come with pockets, attachment points, even integrated breathing devices (an extra regulator).
The BCD is designed to work like a life vest on the surface and to help the diver remain neutrally buoyant while underwater. It should be thought of as little more than a bag which can have air added or removed from it and by doing so increase or decrease your buoyancy.
The BCD comes in a variety of configurations but there are three basic foundations. The most common is what divers call the “jacket” BCD. The bladder wraps around the diver’s torso and promotes an upright position in the water, when fully inflated. This is of course a favorable thing when on the surface, especially in rough conditions. Most modern jacket style BCD systems have some way of adding lead to the diver to help keep them down (known as integrated weights), though the less expensive versions still require a weight belt. They usually have a few attachment points in the form of D-rings and they come in various sizes. If you should grow/shrink, a jacket BCD will not grow/shrink with you.
The second standard in BCD systems is the “back inflation” type. The system consists of a harness that is sewn to the buoyancy bladder which lies parallel to the diver’s back torso. This allows the diver the advantage of a more horizontal profile while at depth which makes the diver more efficient. However, on the surface the diver can be forced face down in the water if they over-inflate the buoyancy bladder. This can be overcome with practice. These BCD’s are usually available with integrated weights and accessory pockets but like their jacket cousin, they lack much for size adjustability.
The third option is a system consisting of nothing more than a buoyancy bladder, or “wing.” This wing can be purchased in many sizes to suit various cylinder sizes or configurations or other requirements.
The diver must then also have a way to attach the wing to themselves. This comes in the form of a backplate and harness. Together we call this system a backplate and wing (BP/W). The system allows for lots of modularity and customization. The plate is available in several materials including a soft version, stainless steel or even fancy composites.
The plate allows the user to thread harness material through to make a harness to fit a diver of nearly any size. If you grow/shrink then you need only take in a bit of harness webbing or buy a longer piece and rethread it. Either way the cost is free to $15 versus buying a whole new BCD system like with a jacket or back inflation system. This allows the user to adjust the harness for different suit thicknesses also.
Like the back-inflation BCD the BP/W has a risk of pushing the face down on the surface if over-inflated. If you want pockets or integrated weights they can be added but many times the plate can be made of a material which eliminates the need for lead. The ridged plate helps to stabilize heavy cylinders on the divers back and the whole system promotes better trim in the water.
Better trim equates to more efficiency, comfort, and lower air consumption which equates to longer bottom times.
The cost works out to be about the same, up front. If you wear out a component of a BP/W then you need only replace that component so the savings over time can be enormous.
If you upgrade to double cylinders, as with cave diving, you need only buy a larger wing but retain the rest of the system. If you grow your diving needs to cave or wreck penetration or rebreathers, a BP/W will grow with you.
Don’t be afraid to try something new, it could change the way you experience the underwater world.

Back to list of columns

February 9, 2012

Historic conveyor belt

Several of our springs in Wakulla County have naturally steep slopes leading down to their caves. A mystery has unfolded, as yet untested, regarding how these slopes function in the transport and deposition of anything dropped in their basins.
So let’s take a closer look at the life of a spring basin.
Spring basins attract all manner of wildlife. After all, water has always been a precious resource. One can expect just about every creature to visit for a drink or to prey upon those that do.
Many of those that fall or are chased in or get stuck while trying to get out end up perishing, their remains settling underwater to be further consumed by any number of water-borne carrion-eaters. Before long only bones remain.
Most of these bones are still articulated, a term meaning configured as they were in life, with few alterations due to predation. If excavated thousands of years later, they would look like the dinosaur skeletons we see protruding from rock or reassembled in a museum. And there they would rest except that the spring basin is a dynamic machine.
Water pressure exiting the cave exerts friction on the slope of sediment that leads up to the spring’s basin. The greater the flow, the larger the expected sediment found in the slope.
Springs like Wakulla’s main vent have a history of great variability. As the flow lessens, the basin’s sediments actually migrate more quickly toward the cave, increasing the angle of the slope. Until one day, something begins an underwater avalanche.
Within a short time, tons of sediment race toward the opening of the spring. With the slope sediment depleted, the basin moves its contents to the slope along with any deposits made in the recent past.
If the spring flow is great enough, such as Wakulla Springs, the sand surrounding the deposits is quickly re-deposited upon the newly moved basin material on the slope. The bones recently transported down on the last avalanche are found newly exposed in the cave. This process is repeated over and over effectively transporting the history of the basin down a conveyor belt of sediment to what is called the bone room.
We know of this process because divers have reported them. Wakulla has had at least two avalanches reported, one by Wally Jenkins back in the 1950s and one in 1987 by Dr. Bill Stone, as part of the Cave I exploration.
Wally told me that he used heavy objects like bricks or steel to pull him down rapidly before entering the cave. One day he noticed after he dropped the weight, he was pushed towards the cave unexpectedly. He survived by grabbing the ceiling and climbed out while a vast sediment river rushed beneath him.
Dr. Stone accidentally dropped a 300-pound lead anchor used to control the buoyancy of his underwater habitat. When it hit the slope, the avalanche was considerable.
And Parker Turner, founder of the WKPP, perished in Indian Springs just down the street from Wakulla Springs, when the ceiling of that cavern collapsed on its steep slope, effectively sealing off the cave entrance and trapping two people within.
Parker dug his way out but did not have enough gas to reach the surface. His efforts save his partner is one of the more heroic chapters of that organization.
What do you expect to find in the bone room of Wakulla Springs? If articulated bones are found, they must have walked in and died in place.
If disarticulated, they must have been deposited on the historic conveyor belt.
Anyone taking bets?

Back to list of columns

February 16, 2012

Breathing underwater… again

Imagine taking a full breath while underwater. I remember my first such breath many years ago as exhilarating!
We grow up believing water to be inhospitable, a dense medium difficult to move through, cold and threatening. Our culture is not alone in this belief.
As a young man of 14, I was drawn down from the surface in the Bay of Siam while snorkel (breath-hold) diving. The diversity of a colorful reef was overwhelming. I could not stay close enough nor long enough before I had to return to the surface for another breath. I visited this virgin reef south of Thailand, where no one valued this beauty.
Indeed, today the reef has been removed and replaced by a shipping channel. But the spark ignited my imagination.
For the next two years I would dream about breathing underwater, permitting me to stay near this dynamic reef.
Age 16 found me attending high school in Hawaii. I found diving in the early 1960s was a social activity taught through dive clubs and what better club than a U.S. Navy club with UDT member/instructors.
I had to convince my USAF father to jump the fence, join and attend the Pearl Diver’s Club to get me scuba training. I will never forget my first pool experience breathing compressed gas underwater. A bulky twin hose was gripped in the mouth. The breath begins with an effort to pull gas from the mouthpiece, and is followed by a flow of air that pumps the diver’s lungs until a push back is applied to stop it.
At first I found this procedure odd, but it worked! In time I would accept what became known as activating and stopping the cracking pressure of the regulator.
The greater the depth, the greater the density of the breathing gas, and the greater the diver needs this pumping action to breath underwater. We also learn to breathe deeply and slowly to maximize oxygen absorption and CO2 elimination while underwater.
Later in life, I moved on to Rebreather technology, an older life support technology, currently enjoying a rebirth in our community. The greatest retraining required to move from Open Circuit (OC) to Closed Circuit (CCR) is learning how to breathe – again.
Unlike OC regulators, the CCR uses only your lung muscles to move the gas from the rig in and out of your lungs. And the deeper you go, the denser the gas becomes and the more difficult moving this gas becomes. When you inhale OC gasses, you inflate your lungs and become just a little more buoyant.
When you exhale OC gasses, they bubble all the way to the surface and make you less buoyant. On a Rebreather, since you exhale into a bag, no bubbles and no buoyancy changes happen, making breath control even more important to the dive the diver’s comfort while underwater.
But deeper than 150 feet, the Rebreather diver using air (not trimix with helium) has a problem with breathing. The increasing density of air beyond this depth causes the bronchiole tubes to be pulled into the air passage to the lungs and can ultimately collapse them. The pumping action of the OC regulator appears to reduce this problem. The solution for Rebreather divers is to breathe a mixture of helium and nitrox that reduces the density of the gas at depth.
Today, I quietly breathe moist, warm gas in slow deep rhythmic cadence while reminiscing of years spent immersed, studying my beloved underwater world. And to this day, the first pool session of my basic scuba class (OC or CCR) is dedicated to just enjoy (and learn) breathing underwater.

Back to list of columns

February 23, 2012

Sinkholes, windows into our drinking water.

I climbed down the slope at a favorite sinkhole and dive site last week only to be met by the stench coming from bags of rotting fish heads. Last month it was the remains of a butchered deer. Every month the trash is different: a broken toilet, soiled diapers, or racks of beer bottles, but the message is the same.
Clearly the folks trashing our local sinkholes have not made the connection that these sites are also windows into our drinking water.
How could anyone in good conscience soil their drinking water? I would have thought the county commission requirement for universal trash pickup would have made clandestine dumping trash less likely. But I continue to hear this common complaint from other land owners with sinkholes on their property.
The problem is not new. Wes Skyle’s video “Water Journey” documents a number of sites littered with old batteries, spent antifreeze and tar buckets oozing poisons into the very water that feeds downstream drinking wells.
Years ago, a farmer in Central Florida decided to dump old pesticides in a sinkhole on his property. All animal life residing in the downstream passage was killed.
Before you say it does not matter because you get your water from Talquin, ask yourself where do they get that water? That’s right, from our local aquifer, exposed to the very sinkholes into which people continue to dump their trash.
Archaeologists tell us sinkholes are a wonderful source of historic materials, nicely preserved in the muds of time. They tell us all manner of ancient trash are found there. Sonny Cockrell said of Warm Mineral Springs that 30,000 years of Florida history, including human remains, could be found in the ledges and mud deposits below.
Two thousand one hundred feet into the main spring of Jackson County called Jackson Blue is a trash pile, out of which someone found a 1930s stoplight. Someone perched it on top of a stone in the middle of the passage, and to this day it’s listed on cave maps.
Several years ago on an Island in the Bahamas our search for new species of crustaceans was curtailed by an enormous pile of glass bottles pushed into the sinkhole. The heat had actually melted some of them above water. Any chance of penetrating the cave was lost, but I’m sure bottle collectors one day will find this a treasure.
Locally, cave explorers have had their progress halted because of an apparent sinkhole collapse that may be explained by the actions of a previous landowner. They did not like the location of a sinkhole on their property, so they filled it in with dirt dug up from another part of their yard.
So how can we change? How can we make our sinkholes attractive, not repulsive?
We can start by recognizing our caves have an intrinsic value that attracts people (and their money) from around the state, nation and world. We can encourage the Wakulla County Dive Club that happily provides sinkhole clean-up services in exchange for diving privileges. Whenever the club visits dive sites now, they always carry trash bags and clean up the trash before leaving.
Is it possible to keep our sinkholes clean or shall we continue to support some future archaeologist’s quest for our trash?

Back to list of columns

March 1, 2012

Dorsal light response

While going to school in Hawaii, I naturally spent a lot of time underwater, looking at reef animals. Under ledges and in marine caverns, I would see these fish swimming around upside down!
Of course I emulated them to better understand their tendency to swim in this manner. My regulator would fill up with water and soon send me back out into the open water sputtering. The fish fled with me and hovered about me now upside right! Something under the ledge must be doing this to the fish (and not me).
In my senior year in college I chose to experiment with these same fish as part of an animal behavior class project.
I tried moving surfaces around, currents, day vs. night all in an aquarium and to no avail. My fish stayed upright. Then one day the light in my room reflected off a glass surface and beamed into the transparent aquarium from the floor. The fish, a long nose butterfly fish, promptly turned upside down. It seems they have what is called a dorsal light response, turning their top surface towards light.
Since they are neutral in their buoyancy, and only find these conditions in overhangs on the reef, they rise up to the ceiling of a ledge and swim upside down. I was able to replicate this condition, even without the ceiling substrate, by inserting a tight mesh box into the aquarium that had all dark sides except one where the light could penetrate. I could turn the mesh box randomly causing the fish to swim on its side, upside down or otherwise at my command. Needless to say, I earned a good grade in that class.
Fast forward a decade or so and find me diving under 10 feet of ice in the Antarctic. There, snow on the ice darkens the surface ceiling, except where our entrance hole beams light on to a crystalline reef. I would often find myself unexpectedly upside down, even on my knees pressed against the hard ice ceiling, looking up – no, down – at the sponge reef below.
I had strange sensations in my head since gravity continued to affect the balancing organs of my inner ear that conflicted with what my eyes were seeing. Ultimately the inner ear won, permitting me to drop to the sea floor and get on with data collecting.
Since I was hose diving, breathing in a helmet with gasses from the surface was better; at least my gas supply was not interrupted, but rising bubbles still confused sight!
Fast forward another few decades and find me diving under tons of rock in a very large cavern near Williston, training/evaluating yet another new rebreather. Here we carry our own lights, so dorsal light response is not so much an issue. After two days of testing, where everyone swam around on the floor, pretty much like normal fish – ah, people – do, I found myself drawn to the walls and then the ceiling.
But unlike others up there with me, I was comfortably upside down. For much of the last dive I spent watching the other test divers swimming upside down on the ceiling substrate. I mean they seemed strange looking at me strangely. What was notable was for the first time, I discovered a rebreather that truly breathes equally in all attitudes, head up, down, somersaults and on my back. And no exhaled bubbles were released to confuse sight.
Of course I was reprimanded by the dive supervisors of the evaluation for my antics, but exalted by the designing engineer who agreed with me that it no longer mattered as to which way was up. I am a fish!

Back to list of columns

March 8, 2012

The blind crayfish

Blind Cave Crayfish

As an animal with eyes, we are challenged to imagine a world without light.
For most of us, even poor eyesight permits a sense of security in the contrast of light and shadow. To imagine what a cave-dwelling creature must manage every day in the absence of light is nearly impossible.
For the past several years I have been working on a special research team in search of new (to science) species of crustaceans, found in the back reaches of underwater caves. And for the most part, they don’t even have eyes anymore.
Creatures that live in underwater caves in the absence of light are usually related to creatures that evolved with light, so their ancestors once had eyes. But, over time, these creatures adapted to the dark, and those that survived over many generations, lost their eyes. Some fish that can be found in dark caves have eye sockets, with no eyes. Crayfish in dark caves have eyes stalks, but no eyes. And the list goes on.
So how do they do it? How can they “see” in the dark?
There are many explanations. Other sensory capabilities are enhanced, such as touch, taste (smell) and sound. But in the denser medium of water, 800 times denser that air, subtle changes are very useful.
Those of you who have visited our cave crayfish at the Center may have noticed minnows in the tank. Over time their numbers diminish as they are captured by the blind crayfish. I have watched when the hungry crayfish is fishing: It climbs up on a rock and raises its claws above itself. Eventually, a minnow swims between the jaws and the claws close rapidly.
The disturbing motion of the water is felt by cilia (little hairs on the claw) that inform the predator food is available.
Several weeks ago I found one of my favorite caves full of blind crawfish of all sizes. They are usually found scattered over the walls and ceiling rocks, but this day were concentrated on the mud floor. And there I found several who had “found” each other and were mating. Either the finding was a random act resulting from the denser concentration on the floor, or more likely, they gave off a smell or pheromone that permitted males to find females on the floor of the cave.
The beam from my bright cave light would not cause them any attention, but when I put my hand close by one, it would scurry off just like its relative, the colorful Florida Lobster found on the reefs in the Florida Keys. Yes, that’s right, these cave animals have no reason to be colorful since sight is not in their world, so they are white or transparent.
Now there is the rub. An animal that is white on a black background is like a shining beacon when light is introduced. Open water fish (with eyes) have learned that divers carry the sun with them and will follow us in for the feast of their lifetime. We in turn, have learned to turn our lights off at the back of a cavern, to encourage these intelligent fish to return to the light. In January we found a starving open water fish lost in the back of a cave. As soon as it saw our light, we were its best buddy, following us out tucked in as closely as possible.
I often turn my light off when in a cave, trying to imagine what these creatures must feel. I feel the water flow past my face, touch contact with the walls, and hear sounds from others in the vicinity. I imagine my surroundings in my mind’s eye, then to verify it with my light.
As part of training, I often get lost, requiring my students to find me. I am getting good at this game, but never as good as the residents because I know I can always flick a light switch and return to my world.
Find me if you can!

Back to list of columns

March 15, 2012

Suwannee River caves

All eyes are on the Suwannee River this week as it rises to within four feet of flooding Peacock Springs State Park.
In the absence of adequate cave diving training sites here in Wakulla County, we are transfixed to the flood cycles of surrounding cave systems this time of the year.
All last month, the Merritt’s Mill Pond in Marianna was drained to combat hydrilla infestations. The resulting effect was that several favorite cave sites were inaccessible.
Now sites along the Suwannee, such as Little River and Telford, are flooded with dark waters. Since I have another out of town cave class underway this week, schedules are changing with frustrations high.
But flooding our caves with dark water has a healthy nourishing effect. Stagnant water, soaking leaves and other organic material has been stored in our swamps all winter. These swamps fill up with the spring rains and overflow their banks into the many karst windows in the county that empty into the aquifer.
Tannins from the leaves cause our Wakulla water to turn brown, draining swamps like Squire Swamp and Sullivan to feed the north/south underground conduit. Since little plant life grows in our lightless caves, residents like the blind crawfish, rely upon the bounty of these floods to bring food to their table.
This is a time of plenty, as I witnessed our crayfish mating and carrying eggs at a favorite local cave last week.
Extended flooding exposes our otherwise white limestone walls to chemicals that darken the walls with deposits, such as goethite. Greater water flow through underground passages expands these tunnels, moves sediment floors and displaces residents.
When the dark waters recede, and clarity returns, we find a reorganized cave, one with new life, character and charm.
Several years ago the Suwannee River was equally swollen, brown with sediments, and promising a nourishing flood. I was there with a class, and witnessed the river break its banks and flood Peacock caves.
We first felt a change in water flow while in the cave, from spring to siphon. I quickly ushered my class to the nearest exit and climbed out to witness a small waterfall coming from the river, cascading into the park.
Soon the caves were swallowing up churning dark water.
The rangers were soon encouraging our departure as the park flooded to over 20 feet. Even the roads leading to the park were flooded that time.
And flooded they stayed for several weeks — the park was closed for months.
But a newly surfaced road and cleanup crews topside and below when the waters once again turned clear restored the park to its original glory back then.
It will happen again no doubt. We will dive there again tomorrow if the creek don’t rise, and share this beauty one last time before dark waters visits to nourish residence creatures once more.

Back to list of columns

March 22, 2012

Calappa granulate: The Shameface Crab

When I am offshore diving, whether in search of a meal or adventure, I am always watching the sea floor for creatures of interest.
No, they do not need to be food for me, wonderful entertainment is always appreciated.
The Shameface Crab, Calappa granulate, one of many species found around the world, is certainly entertaining.
But most divers never see this crab, which can get to be 9 millimeters long and 12 millimeters wide.
The claws pull up in front of his face, which is where this crab gets its name as it hides behind its claws.
But during the day, it is usually buried in the sand showing only the eyes and the tips on its claws, waiting for a meal, such as a hermit crab, to stroll by.
At night this crab is digging in the sand in search of mollusks or sea shells to eat.
Now the last time I tried to eat a mollusk, I had a hard time getting past that hard shell. I can steam the critter or shuck it with a knife, but this crab is not so capable.
Or is it?
The right hand claw is a perfect can opener.
Once pulled from the sand, a shelled creature is manipulated into place such that the modified claw is inserted into any opening and locked down like a vice-grip.
The shell is crushed and its contents immediately available to the crab. Next time you are out diving and you find spiraled shells (gastropods) that have been peeled open, this is the work of the Shamefaced Crab.
You Tube even has a short clip on the internet showing a Shamefaced Crab opening a cockle shell – www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0uhtT45Nhc.
You might think those poor hermit crabs haven’t a chance, but they do.
Over time and a process of natural selection, hermit crabs that carry anemones (related to jellyfish) on their shells are rejected by the Shameface Crab.
Imagine putting an oyster to your mouth only to be stung by a jellyfish hanging on the shell. It has the same effect on the crab.
The crab soon gives up the anemone-carrying hermit crab in preference to one without the sting.
Folks who study these creatures have even observed hermit crabs searching for and placing anemones on their backs. It seems that for every adaptation in nature there is a counter-adaptation.
For those who don’t dive (yet), visit the Gulf Specimen Marine Lab in Panacea, where you can see and even briefly pick up one of these Shameface Crabs and inspect it at close quarters.
In cooperation with Gulf Specimen Marine Lab we are placing two 100-gallon display aquariums in our facility at Wakulla Diving Center this summer, to show off many of these creatures of interest. That way divers can get better acquainted with these and other seldom-seen creatures while they get their cylinders filled.
Come to the coast and share in the excitement. Feeding times will be posted!

Back to list of columns

March 29, 2012

Hose Diving

Long before there was Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatuses (SCUBA), there was hose or Surface Supplied (SS) diving.
Breathing air was pumped down to a person at depth through a rubber pipe.
In the beginning, the pump at the surface was as primitive as the helmet at depth. Manually driven bellows similar to those used to stoke a smith’s fire, were constructed to manage the greater pressure required of the depth of the diver. One or two people would rock a lever back and forth, or up and down, driving a single piston in and out of a tube with valves at the end.
Attached to the other end of the tube, a diver would wear an open bell helmet a top his head. The surface supplied hose delivered air that kept the water level in the helmet below the chin of the occupant.
Sponge divers off Tarpon Springs Florida used just such a diving device a century ago. And Europeans used surface supplied breathing gas to salvage sunken ships centuries before that.
Today, Surface Supplied Diving is even more popular amongst the recreational diving community. They have gas and electric driven pumps to replace the manual systems, but otherwise the pumps are rather similar. The delivery hose looks like a yellow garden hose similar to the one with which you water the plants. At the other end, the diver or divers breathe from regulators similar to the second stages of their scuba brethren.
Most gasoline-powered pumps run for three hours before refueling; permitting a team of two a very long dive depending upon how deep they dive.
The yellow 100-foot long delivery hose floats, so divers stay within a 100-foot radius of the boat’s safety dive flag as specified by Florida Law. Other boats must stay 100 feet away from the red and white Diver Down flag.
I installed a surface supplied compressor on the bow of my boat. Others set it in a float that follows the divers around on the reef.
Imagine no heavy cylinder on your back, easy water entry and exits, and three hour dives.
These rigs are ideal for shallow water diving, lobster fishing in the Keys, scallop fishing off St. Marks, and keeping the children corralled near the boat.
I moved my children from snorkel diving to scuba through an intermediate surface supplied step. Of course I was in the water with them, and insisted upon training to national standards, resulting in hours of thrilling time underwater.
Last week the clam aqua-culturists visited our shop in search of surface supplied technology. They are placing their baby clams this month in waters less than 10 feet deep. They spend a lot of time in shallow water. I once carried the same 50 pound surface supplied compressor on my back five miles through the jungles of Palau (an island in the Pacific) to dive shallow lakes too distant to supply with scuba cylinders.
After the first day, all I carried in was a gallon of gasoline each day.
The clam farmers love this five century old diving concept as much as the rest of us.

Back to list of columns

April 5, 2012

The Grand Canyon and Wakulla Springs

By Travis Kersting

Does every person who visits the Grand Canyon actually hike its entire length? Does every person who wants to dive at Wakulla Springs want to dive to the limits of its exploration?
The answer to both of those questions is NO and for very similar reasons.
Many people do not care to spend the time and money required, nor undertake the rigorous effort required to hike the entire length of the 275-plus mile long canyon.
Most are perfectly happy just driving to its edge and gazing over it from one or two spots. Facilities suitable for a far larger number of people rim viewing to a localized area is designed to be easily monitored and maintained.
Wakulla Springs State Park is no different. They have just such a “rim” facility at the water’s edge, with docks, anchored rafts, towers and boats, accommodating large numbers of curious visitors. But until now, visitors interested in viewing the underwater wonders of the park have been restricted to a select few who must enter through a costly private permit holder.
To dive the “cavern” zone, that which is still illuminated by natural sunlight allows visitors to duck under the ledge for a better view. Cavern diving is less expensive or equipment intensive than cave diving.
The cavern at Wakulla dwarfs that of most Florida caves and is a highly appealing recreational level site.
However, visiting the cavern still requires an individual be cavern certified so they are aware and familiar with the dangers of an overhead environment. Cavern diving is the scuba equivalent to hiking down just below the rim of the Grand Canyon, gazing at it from the protection of the upper walls.
Most cave diving visitors breathe Nitrox or Air and are limited to recreational depths of 130 feet. In Wakulla Springs, these depths are still in the zone of light, well outside of the dark part of the cave.
Because of the sheer size of the spring, such a dive in Wakulla is spectacular. Hikers in Grand Canyon are still on short rim trails in this analogy.
Depending upon who you ask, depths below recreational diving limits require the use of a gas mixture of helium, nitrogen and oxygen called “Trimix.” Helium is added to dilute the other two gases of oxygen and nitrogen, which may, if left undiluted, become toxic and narcotic respectively the deeper you go.
Trimix, however, is expensive. As most open circuit divers know, the deeper you go, the more gas you breathe. Standard open circuit scuba diving would need to carry a lot of breathing gas for a two hour dive below 200 feet in Wakulla.
The breathing gas bill alone to do this dive would be around $200. That doesn’t include the training costs for full cave training, typically $1,500 to $2,000, and trimix training, an additional $1,200 to $1,500.
A diver will have invested in the range of $6,000 to $15,000 in equipment before they enter the water.
All of that to do the equivalent of a one day hiking trip in the Grand Canyon!
Unlike the Grand Canyon, short of a well-funded group of divers like the WKPP, it’s doubtful many will “hike” the full length of Wakulla’s underwater world any time soon.

Back to list of columns

April 12, 2012

Scientist-In-The-Sea.

During the summer of 1970, NOAA’s Man in the Sea Program funded Florida State University to offer a series of semester-long residence classes at the Naval Coastal System Center in Panama City.
Capt. George Bond, MD, organized U.S. Navy resources to host diving science faculty from many disciplines to expose their graduate students to naval underwater technology that might serve underwater research.
Over the next three years they perfected the program such that by the time I attended in 1974, they accommodated 20 graduate students, with me being the last Scientist-In-The Sea student accepted into the program as funding soon ended.
I was winding down a two-years-plus experience at Harbor Branch Foundation Lab (HBFL), still in search of a career in Diving Science.
I was taking graduate courses at Florida Atlantic University, but frustrated with the previous year’s tragedy of the trapped mini-sub Johnson-Sea-Link off the Florida Keys that took the lives of Dr. Ed Link’s son and a respected Navy man.
Dr. Larry Briel and Walley Jenkins invited me up to Panama City to meet with Dr. Bond to see if I could find an alternate path. After a brief discussion of my past performance, he told Walley I’d do just fine, to report for training in a few months and the interview was over. My life’s paradigm shift happened so quickly I missed the relevance of the moment.
I returned to my job at HBFL and began plans for a productive summer at the lab oblivious of the opportunity.
I did not know anything about the then prestigious NOAA funded Navy-FSU program called Scientist-In-The-Sea until Chris Combs, their graduate coordinator called me angrily a month later to ask if I was going to apply or stop wasting his time. His lecture was enough to get me on track, secure time off from my job, get graduate recommendations secured and forms completed to report to the base on time. Little was the same afterwards.
My lifelong beard was removed, I was issued a jump-suit uniform, we moved into dormitories, issued military visitor IDs, ate at the military mess and, yes, began PT every morning (swimming and jogging). After PT, morning lectures and afternoon practical field or pool exercises followed six days a week for the next 10 weeks. This fast paced schedule was too much for me!
The week we were trained on Surface Supplied diving (helmets included), I rebelled. I could see no science in what we were doing, just exposure to technology, the Navy way.
While fascinating in its own right, I sought the academic interaction I thought would be provided. I threatened to quit the program. That got me a meeting with the Master Chief Wilbur Eaton. He was surprised at first, then amused.
He said the faculty of the program had already pinned their hopes on me to coordinate the next SITS Program, through difficult, unfunded times.
I greeted this with incredulity! I was the graduate student after all, I was supposed to learn from them, and how disappointed I was in the direction I was being lead. Wilbur said his amusement was in my failure to recognize that they were the past, graduate students were the future, and the sooner we came to grips with it, the sooner we could change it. I stayed.
With Navy assistance, I organized and coordinated SITS 1976 at the FSU Marine Lab with 35 guest faculty speakers, a staff of six and 10 students. I again organized and coordinated SITS 2000 on base in Panama City with similar results.
Master Chief Wilbur Eaton empowered me in 1974 to stop following and take the lead.

Back to list of columns

April 19, 2012

The survey of the Titanic debris field triggering memories.

“Turn the camera to the left five degrees and hold it steady,” came a voice in my helmet from the surface tender. “Yes, right there, steady and don’t move.”
This last command was easy for them to ask but hovering mid water holding a large cylindrical video camera attached to the surface by a heavy cable was quite the challenge.
Such performance was required back in 1976 when I assisted State Underwater Archeologist Sonny Cockrell at Warm Mineral Springs.
Throughout that spring my wife worked at this underwater research site creating a three-dimensional map of the spring and its contents while I attended graduate school in Tallahassee.
My frequent visits resulted in an early exposure, under the close scrutiny of Larry Murphy the site’s research manager, to underwater archaeology research techniques.
I later incorporated several into my own research on anemone symbioses with shrimp, crabs and fish on marine reefs. To measure this condition however, required the same tools and techniques, just called something different in each discipline. We both applied the Rosencrans Bubble Tube reference technique.
Three dimensional sites require a reference grid with an X and Y and Z value. On land you might measure the distance between objects in a two dimensional grid, then get the elevation using a transit tool (mounted on a tripod with a scope to see elevation over each object in the grid).
Because water quality is usually very poor on most underwater research sites, such optical tools do not work well.
Now visualize a clear plastic tube with an air bubble holding the tube in an upward arc between the object of interest in a grid of many such objects and a datum stake of known elevation. The air-water interface serves as an artificial reference, even at both ends, to which measurements may then be taken.
I am certain this technique was taken from masons who apply the principle in reverse to maintain a straight line of bricks on a land based construction site. Dr. George Bass, the father of Underwater Archaeology, describe this technique in 1960 in one of his texts on the subject.
Like the rest of you, my wife and I were transfixed to the History Channel last weekend watching the survey of the Titanic debris field, over two miles underwater. Today we have sophisticated measuring devices to create these gridded three-dimensional maps permitting scientists to study the provenience between objects at an underwater scene.
Propulsion vehicles with attached video or sonic cameras can produce transects of data that, using a computer, can produce an underwater mosaic picture, like the Titanic, in almost any water.
Several years ago, I assisted State Archaeologist Keith Meverden’s (Wisconsin Historic Society) to survey the Rouse Simmons or Christmas Tree Wreck located in Lake Michigan.
Resting in 170 feet of cold water, this boat still held many secrets. We sought to find out how/why it sank. But first a photomosaic was created, a grid or term of reference, within which the diving scientists could recreate the sinking.
Ground-truthing followed, identifying structures and their provenience to the rest of the boat. By the end of the six-week project, a forensic study, with publications to follow, detailed the final moments of this tragedy.
We have come such a very long way from measuring a clear tube to video photomosaic in one career’s life time. We may see more happen right here in Wakulla County.

Back to list of columns

April 26, 2012

A practical comparison.

Monday, Travis and I went for a typical dive. We drove 100 miles to Jackson County to their Meritt’s Mill Pond, to a cave called Jackson Blue. There we paid for the privilege to dive their cave system, a dive to a depth of 95 feet and a penetration of 2,500 feet one-way, or 5,000 feet roundtrip taking us 141 minutes, including decompression.
I make these dives on the average of once a week, exercise for my good health and mental improvement, not unlike a brisk stroll in the park. I dive a Closed Circuit Rebreather (CCR), while Travis dives Open Circuit (OC).
Our very different configuration on today’s dive is called mixed team diving and is common these days. The opposing philosophy believes both divers must dive exactly the same configuration, and preferably OC.
On our way home this evening we began to compare the challenges we each faced with our different technology and realized this would make a great topic for this column.
To safely complete this dive, Travis consumed 230 cubic feet of breathing gas over the 141 minutes. He breathed Nitrox 32 percent to minimize decompression stress and 100 percent oxygen above 20 feet to reduce decompression time.
For safety reasons he carried 80 cubic feet of gas as a bail-out option, should his primary gases fail, since he could not rely upon my rebreather as a reserve supply.
He also used two-thirds of his primary breathing gas keeping the rest, or 160 cubic feet, for emergencies. If you add this all up he carried 510 cubic feet of breathing gas to safely complete this dive. That volume of gas translated into seven diving cylinders. Had he consolidated his cylinders better, he might have been able to get the number down to six or even five cylinders, but not today. Each cylinder has a regulator and harness totaling $4,000 for the lot. The gas cost $65 but the gas used was about $25 as there was ample reserve.
We both wore dry suits to keep warm in the 67-degree water, carried very bright lamps rendering the cave spectacularly beautiful, computers for safe decompression and reels to help map our exit and carried matching back up supplies each costing the same at about $6,000.
I made this same trip breathing from a CCR, recirculating the gas, and adding consumed oxygen. I took two 20 cubic foot cylinders attached to my CCR, one with 100 percent oxygen and one with air (21 percent). I used one-third of the oxygen and 1/10th of the air during the 141 minute dive. I also carried one 80 cf cylinder of Nitrox 32 percent as bail-out and consumed about 10 percent as make-up gas.
I left a 30 cf cylinder of 100 percent oxygen at 20 feet as a precaution, which I did not use. My gas taken cost $15. I also used one-fifth of my Carbon Dioxide filter (called the scrubber) at a cost of $5, so round out my gasses taken at $20 for the 141 minute dive. My rebreather cost $8,000 to purchase, about twice that of Travis’ OC rig. Both systems require about the same investment in yearly maintenance assuming Travis, as a reg tech, services his own equipment.
Assuming both rigs last as long, when will our investment equal each other? Call me at (850) 545-9198 if you can figure it out!
One thing we did agree upon after the dive: I was much more relaxed not hauling so many cylinders as Travis. My footprint (as they call it) weighed 100 pounds while his weighed 225 pounds.

Back to list of columns

May 3, 2012

The Research Cruise.

For eight years I sponsored a summer cruise aboard my 46-foot sailboat, the S/V Olapa. Students would register for a class at FSU called Applications of Diving to Research.
But these cruises began many years earlier with Joe Barber, our marine lab boat captain, who took my classes down to the Florida Keys and the Bahamas on self-directed research. I designed a class where students designed underwater research that with the help of their classmates, they would conduct on intense weekend projects.
They would take us anywhere they could on their very limited budgets. Good people like Barber, Bobby Millender, Mr. Oaks, George Fischer, Jim Dunbar, Robert Warner and many others always had ways and means.
In the end, I attended more than 300 such projects before retiring in 2004. So here is how it worked.
Each year (since 1980), a department would provide limited funds and a teaching assistant to support my class in Applications of Diving to Research. Dedicated students from many disciplines would apply and be selected based upon their need to know. Many were early graduate students. We warned them the class was both brutal as in time consuming and fun in that we were in the field.
To pass the class, each student had to select a topic, design and test a hypothesis, build a research team and conduct a pilot study lasting at least one day. Concept, cruise plan, budgets, reports and ultimately a grant proposal was required (which generated a grade). Each student selected a date and worked with others to make that project a success.
Some failed, some made it and some excelled, as you might have expected. But as long as their reports documented their journey, they passed the class.
Imagine anthropology, biology, oceanography, criminology, art, chemistry and engineering students working together in the same class, bound together by a common research site (underwater). The revelations between disciplines were common, their terms were different, but their descriptions were similar and their tools could be shared.
The relationship between two objects is called provenance by the anthropologist, interpersonal distance by the biologist and relational evidence in criminology. Team building over a semester was an awesome experience for the students and for me to witness.
In one class, during a swim down the Ichnetucknee River, an anthropologist saw an ivory tip protruding from the bank. We reported it to Dr. Jim Dunbar (a frequent sponsor) at the Florida Archives, and were invited by him to excavate the site. The anthropology student took on the project and built his team which included an engineer and photographer. The entire excavation was video documented.
The engineer designed a device that successfully removed a full mammoth tusk from the site – undamaged – back to the state’s preservation lab in Tallahassee. Dunbar said it was a first!
George Fischer sponsored students on numerous surveys of national park forts up and down the Gulf and East Coasts, exciting opportunities in search of lost historic boats or relics thrown from defender’s walls.
I became a sponsor in 1995 when I began summer research on diseases in marine organisms along the Florida Keys with Dr. Rob Werner, the university veterinarian. Students had to learn how to run the boat, conduct their research, and of course, be safe while living afloat with like-minded colleagues.
We made stops to survey marine organisms on the reef every eight nautical miles from Miami to west of the Dry Tortugas in a three-week period. The fourth week was make up should we have bad weather or breakdowns along the way. In future columns, I will share these cruises with you.
The true heroes are the creative students and sponsors that became my inspiration.

Back to list of columns

May 10, 2012

Underwater photography.

The Diving Scientist often documents his or her experiment or data using an underwater camera. One of our earliest training modules in the Applications of Diving To Research class was to provide the technology and techniques to capture an image underwater.
But first came lectures on the physics behind light penetrating water, where the sun reflects off the surface bringing long dusk and dawn periods underwater.
Light also refracts in water, resulting in objects looking 25 percent larger and closer than they really are. And finally, sunlight is absorbed, resulting in the loss of color the deeper you go, losing red in the first few feet.
Your typical point and shoot camera is compromised underwater without some help. Our Nikon cameras had settings to control light and lenses to help focus the image.
Students were issued underwater cameras and film and taught how to physically take a picture before going out to document their research.
If a student took one or two identifiable pictures out of a roll of 36, the exercise was considered a success. So we got creative. Students set their cameras to a setting that captured as much information as possible in one picture and bracketed their pictures in a range of light settings and used all the film on every dive. Some even took multiple cameras down.
Others developed a super-8 movie camera into a time lapse (taking a frame very few seconds) that over several hours would record hundreds of pictures.
We then introduced artificial light. Strobes and flashlights improved depth-of-field (the distance within the camera’s view that was in focus) and brought the brilliant reef colors out on film.
Yes, all those drab colored reef creatures seen by divers using sunlight show a very different color when viewed with artificial light shining on them. Special lenses permitted greater areas covered or let them document the miniature overlooked reef creatures.
By the end of the semester, most students could capture a decent underwater image.
On the way back from the Florida Keys one summer, my class visited the National Park Services’ George Fischer on the eve of his discovery of a Biscayne Bay shipwreck. Out of time and resources, he was desperately documenting the site and asked for help.
My students and I loaded our cameras that night and over six hours the following day, took more than 500 sequential pictures along multiple transects laid along the wreck. Over the next semester we built a photomosaic that was used in court to identify and secure the wreck for the National Park Service.
Today, with digital photography, the expensive bulky cameras have all been replaced with tiny high definition technology that almost anyone can use and get wonderful pictures underwater.
Today we can attach one of these video cameras the size of a vitamin bottle to a scooter and make a photomosaic the size of a shipwreck in less than an hour. A computer program can then digest the data and produce an impressive detailed site document.
I participated in such a project documenting a site in Lake Michigan, and hope to do so again in the near future in the bone room of Wakulla Springs.
But it is still all about the light.

Back to list of columns

May 17, 2012

Threat Fish Project.

As an important part and learning exercise for our underwater crime scene investigation students, they had to pick and devise a semester project.
In a previous column, Gregg Stanton alluded to the fact that it was imperative for the students to finish the project, even if unsuccessful in the stated objective. This provided a sharp contrast to the theoretical classroom thinking. Just as in real life, it is pragmatic problems that inhibit clever ideas, and simpler very often is better.
An example of a very successful undertaking was the threat fish project: We all know, from experience, that throwing food out onto a pond will have fish snatch it up very fast – it is free food, after all, so who wouldn’t.
Making food available in the context of a “feeding station,” presented under water on a little plate, showed similar behavior.
Even in the presence of people, such as swimmers, fish will leave their shelter to gobble up the offered delicacies. This was demonstrated and recorded on video in the kiddy pool at the Panama City jetties. Swimmers and kids playing in the chest-deep water all the time at this site, and fish got used to people. The fish learned that they need to keep their distance from people, but that there is no immediate threat if everyone is careful.
A barracuda, on the other hand, poses a significant danger to the fish. But how good are fish in recognizing a barracuda threat, and how do they change their behavior?
To answer that question, a photo of a barracuda was printed to a size of approximately two feet. The photo was glued onto cardboard, and the whole board was cut to the shape of the barracuda. The whole assembly was laminated to be water proof.
Equipped with floating foam on top, the “Baracuda” was tied to weights using thin fishing line. This created an underwater object the shape and colors of the predator, floating mid-water.
The threat fish was deployed near feeding stations. The results were immediate and drastic – no more fish helping themselves to a meal, swimmers present or not. The efforts for this project were minimal – one dollar spent on food for fish, and a day spent on the beach. The outcome was clear and significant, even today we still talk about it.
An example for an “unsuccessful” project was the corrosion-experiment: How fast do various metals corrode (rust) in a saltwater environment?
A collection of metal pipes (copper, steel, galvanized steel) was mounted on a board using cable ties. The assembly was then transported out into the bay by boat, and deployed at a depth of 10 feet. The location was marked using GPS. No marker buoy was deployed due to the fear of theft both of the experiment and the buoy. A month later, the day was spent trying to find the assembly, unsuccessfully. The efforts for the project were quite significant: a lot of time wasted and money spent for fuel.
The message learned was also very clear: The ocean is huge, and lots of things happen in it, making finding objects in it like finding the needle in a haystack. Corrosion projects may be better done in a tank in a laboratory.
Who do you believe actually learned more from their project? Both parties spent a lot of time thinking about their project. In case of the former project, thinking was done in advance, resulting in a successful project outcome. In the case of the later project, thinking was done afterwards in the form of “lessons learned.”
I can’t remember who came up with this, so I quote without reference: Good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgment.
Is that not true for life in general?

Back to list of columns

May 24, 2012

Emerald Sink.

My most recent cave class visited several dive sites in search of clear water. Emerald Sink came to mind, but is currently unavailable to visitors seeking training. In its day however, Emerald was very popular.
I first visited Emerald Sink as a checkout dive site for our FSU scuba classes in the early 1980s. Local divers had constructed a ladder down the steep slopes of the sink, replacing the rope used by swimmers who jumped from trees.
The annual floods usually demolished the ladder, necessitating periodic new investments. In the 1990s a very nice stairway was constructed that lasted several years.
We would bring a dozen students at a time, dive them to 60 feet in the open water for two dives before moving on to ocean dives the next weekend. Emerald Sink was convenient, shallow and usually clear.
Midday, the light would shine down the shaft in deep blue emerald rays. The University of Florida would bring their entire class of several hundred students for checkout dives, overwhelming the site but only for one weekend a semester.
This site became a favorite cave dive of mine because it connected under the road, to other sinkholes close by. I could swim upstream at a shallow 70 feet to Twin and Cheryl, climb out and walk back to my car. Or I could swim 1,000 feet to the Dark Abyss, turn around and get back in under an hour. These became our after-work swims for exercise.
Then one day I was told kids had stolen a car and dumped it in Emerald Sink! Fuel leaked out and contaminated our beautiful dive site. I called friends I knew in state government to get the car out as soon as possible, but found little interest.
I finally threatened to go to the press regarding the threat to our county’s drinking water. The car was quickly removed, but so was our access. The property was soon acquired by the Wakulla Springs State Park and diving was forbidden.
Jonny Richards managed to get the attention of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to open Emerald Sink to diving if that community could raise the funds to build proper steps and facilities. Approximately $10,000 was raised, more than enough, and volunteers recruited to do the work.
My group alone contributed $1,000 and seven helpers, only to find out later that overbearing standards eliminated all of our contributors but two. The two of us have boycotted ever since out of protest.
Today, with an average of only 40 people diving the site a year, the parking lot is overgrown from lack of attention.
Heated debate continues about opening our local dive sites to the public while still maintaining the security of our watershed.
And the emerald blue waters still flow relentlessly on its way to the sea, passing briefly by this beautiful sinkhole.

Back to list of columns

May 31, 2012

Cemetery Science.

Mockingbirds defend their territory by patrolling their boundary displaying to their neighbors. In the spring, my graduate mentor sent many of us aspiring scientists out into the field to document mockingbird territory, and what better place than the cemetery.
Each headstone was uniquely identifiable by both observer and subject bird alike. The cemetery was and still is a quiet place for reflection and study, a perfect place to sit under a shade tree and draw out the headstone the birds selected while singing to or engaging with their neighbors.
By the end of an hour or two, I would have not only the territory of one, but several birds mapped out, and their respective community of dearly departed resting below.
Resources such as a nest, standing water, and protected high perch, were also identified, with the amount of time spent in each dutifully recorded for a time budget.
The scene was serene, with blooming flowers of spring, the hustle of the birds and the bustle of the insects competing with my attention for the science lesson at hand. Then a bird would fly up and out of its territory to go visit another on a distant meadow, causing me to jump up and be quick to the chase.
Sharing time and space with this community of bird and departed was cathartic.
Someone told me fish were the birds of the sea. In the course of time, I soon found myself on a patchreef and with time on my hands, mapping the territory of fish in the same fashion as I did with my cemetery birds.
The Coco damselfish is remarkably like the mockingbird, in that it defends a part of the reef that is defined by structures by engaging in mock battle with its neighbors. Coral and sponge colonies replaced headstones, but the rest was very similar.
A time budget revealed the value of a nest, cleaning station (shrimp and fish that clean others), grazing area and defensive perch.
I was ever so surprised one day to see my subject swim up over the reef and race off to briefly visit with others on a distant undefended part of the reef. Other diving scientists reported that these territorial fish were communicating by sound as well! Did these two very different groups of animals read the same manual?
I then began to see other fish species with under- or overlapping territories — some so small like the Bicolor, several fit inside of one Coco territory, others that included several Coco territories, all species tolerant of each other, but seldom of itself.
Then one day, a 5-inch Butterfly fish came into the patch reef community. Some fish are territory defenders and some are territory marauders. This long nose Butterfly fish attacked the anemone that housed a cleaning station, ripping out half before detection. The smallest defenders, in which the shared cleaning station resided, were the first to attack. They were no match for the Butterfly fish, measuring 1/10th the size, but the ruckus they rose attracted the Coco damselfish, which were half its size, but willing to attack.
As the Butterfly fish rose up out of the reef, the Three Spot joined in biting small mouthfuls of scales from a now fleeing marauder. Then to my right the Grasby grouper, an 18-inch resident that rested on his favorite perch and seldom defended the patch, lifted off and bit the Butterfly fish in two.
In the end, the crabs had a feast, as the grouper showed no further interest.
Now that is community action!
Perhaps reef fish are more complicated than the cemetery birds, or perhaps I just did not stay long enough in the cemetery to see the bigger picture.
I do enjoy the serenity and mystery of the reef, but miss the dearly departed and their distinctive headstones.

Back to list of columns

June 7, 2012

The lightless environment.

I recently looked up Wikipedia for a list of diving hazards and precautions when preparing a lesson on Zero Visibility Diving.
The list is impressive, considering that the human terrestrial condition taken underwater is complicated by constraints resulting from the density of the water (800 times that of air).
We are predominantly a visual animal on land. Visual distortions of light’s refraction, reflection and absorption, when available and when light is absent, limit our productivity underwater. Use of remote sensing technology, such as photography, videography, magnetometry and the wide range of sonar (side scan, beacon, Didson, and fathom) assist when light is limited. Under these conditions, why dive?
Most people agree, there is little reason to get wet if you cannot enjoy the experience. But we forget that while recreational diving is the most common form of scuba diving, most of these dives include good visibility (even at night) as a prerequisite.
There are those, however, who dive our river bottom in search of fossil. The river current can erode the floor and banks, creating near zero visibility and continuously expose paleontology remains which are often found by touch.
Shipwreck and cave diving can also be visually challenged by high sediments often kicked up by the divers themselves. In all of these cases, underwater lamps are of little help as the sediments reflect or absorb the light around the bulb, producing little effect.
I found this to be true when my father asked me to retrieve his anchor in a reservoir one day. What could be easier?
He had tied the anchor line to a tree so all I needed to do was follow it down. Visibility midday dropped to zero within a few feet of the surface. And I was soon following the line through submerged entangling tree limbs for another 30 feet. I found the anchor, had to cut it loose and spent the rest of an hour extricating myself out.
Afterward, I advised my father to next time purchase a new anchor.
Professional diving obligates diving beyond enjoyment. These are people who search for items in a lightless environment.
Divers in the Apalachicola River mine for lost harvested wood, now preserved in the mud after inundation for centuries. We have lined our Dive Center with such wood creating a rustic motif.
Underwater archaeologists have perfected zero visibility techniques to study historic shipwrecks such as the Maple Leaf. Once the ship is located, usually by remote sensing technology, special cameras embedded in clear water bags are lowered over structures to document details otherwise not visible.
On a student project of ours conducted in Mobile Bay, Ala., we dragged a magnetometer behind our boat, which identified anomalies, or magnetic ticks on a paper plotter. Then, we sent a dive team down on every anomaly.
The most successful team was the one with an artist. He would feel the anomaly at depth and return to draw it out on paper on the surface. Some were refrigerators or anchors or cars dumped as artificial reefs, while others were small and medium vessels buried in the sediment with portions protruding up through the mud.
The data retrieved was better than a photograph! We soon assigned an artist to every dive team.
Police dive teams are routinely asked to search for missing people and items such as cars, guns and safes, dropped into watery graves less likely to be visited by the recreational minded divers.
Hazards abound in zero visibility, from unseen entanglements, to chemical and biological contaminants. Only the best trained should go searching for lost items in such conditions.
Once found, underwater crime scene investigation protocols must be followed or the quality of the evidence can be compromised. Fingerprints, for example, can be pulled from submerged items, providing the items are handled properly.
Once removed from the water, items must be properly preserved or they will rapidly deteriorate.

Back to list of columns

June 14, 2012

Nobility.

There is nobility when people work toward a common cause, and shame when they seek conflict as resolution to differences.
In this column I have tried to document when people came together to build our counties artificial reefs, the Underwater Crime Scene Investigation Protocols, the Academic Diving Program at FSU and even a protective fish community nested on a patch reef in the ocean.
I will continue to report on such activities, provide historic perspective and some humor I hope, in anticipation of the day when we can all recognize the contributions of everyone to the preservation and wise exploitation of our beautiful Wakulla County.
I am a marine biologist by profession. My passion is science, the observation of creatures, including humans, and in particular, occupants of the aquatic realm. Since retirement from FSU, I have continued teaching the technology that permits humans to spend great amounts of time underwater.
In the last two years I have also become an investor, purchasing the resources that enables us to spend quality time underwater.
As an investor in this county, I have become more aware of the economic plight facing us all. Rather than sit back and ignore our plight, I support the preservation and wise exploitation of our resources such as water, forest and clean air, the very reasons I chose to raise a family here.
When I moved to this area in the mid 70s, we already had identified the sinkholes of Wakulla as prime recreation, training and research sites. I met and began a long relationship with Ken McDonald of the Tallahassee Police Department because of the number of cars and other stolen property our students reported.
This was back when Wakulla Springs belonged to Ed Ball, and Cherokee was the very popular public weekend swimming hole. During the summer, families would bring their dogs, kids and air mattresses, complete with drinks, to float out in that cool sink. On weekdays we surveyed the floor, and trained for research held elsewhere, such as the Antarctic, Palau and the Florida Keys.
Then Wakulla Springs was purchased by the State of Florida. With the later purchase of local sinkholes by the park, in an attempt to protect them from illegal dumping and their water from pollution, public use was curtailed, driving us out of the county to the east (Mayo and High Springs area), and the west (Marianna and Ponce de Leon area).
Several years ago, the Wakulla County Dive Club formed around a preservation and safety mandate to re-open dive sites to the public. And two years ago they and others began the campaign to open Wakulla Springs to diving.
This week, a new dive shop reportedly called Cave Connections, will open in Wakulla County in anticipation of increased cave diving revenue.
And where am I in all of this?
I anticipate that I will be writing about the noble story of Wakulla County’s public recovery and continued protection of its water resources from the deck of my sailboat in the next few years.

Back to list of columns

June 21, 2012

Side Mount Diving.

By Travis Kersting

In the early days of compressed-gas diving, well before my time, pressurized breathing gas was delivered to the diver from a pump on the surface.
After World War II, Jacques Cousteau labeled his back mounted pressure vessel the Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) with very few alterations applied to this basic configuration since.
A cylinder on the diver’s back, attached to which was a regulator system to make breathing from the cylinder possible at any reasonable depth. Scuba permitted the common person a chance to swim among the fish.
Over the years certain conveniences were added. Many of these things were added to increase diver safety and then comfort.
The submersible pressure gauge or SMB is the item that displays how much pressure is in the scuba tank. Early systems lacked this item but now is a required piece of equipment.
The same applies to the buoyancy compensator which allows the diver to remain buoyant on the surface and neutral underwater.
What went virtually unchanged for 60 years was where the scuba cylinder was attached to the diver. That is until dry cavers, looking to explore the submerged portions of dry caves, started an evolution that continues to this day.
Many times the wet portions of caves were found far inside the dry cave, often through twisting and convoluted passages where moving with a tank on your back was impossible.
Also, the redundancy required for cave diving requires the diver wear at least two complete life support systems, an even heavier and bulkier item to carry on your back.
The solution was to carry the cylinders independently and to simply clip them to a light harness that the diver wears like a jacket. This also allows the diver the convenience of removing the tanks easily when he/she negotiates a restriction underwater.
What we have seen is the evolution of side-mounting cylinders moving into the general open water population. Even PADI has a certification for it now.
Now the diver can carry his cylinder, or cylinders, to the water independently instead of carrying it on his back while wearing the rest of his diving kit. Or someone on the boat can hand the cylinder(s) to you after you get in the water.
If you have back pain, then side-mounted cylinders could make an otherwise painful or impossible activity completely painless and possible. The diver, assuming they use two cylinders (though not required), now has two completely independent and redundant systems which effectively doubles their bottom time and adds a considerable safety margin.
There can be downsides to the side-mount dive system, especially for a new diver. An increase in task loading (more gas management), and some complications with diving from a boat are the two common concerns. Both issues can easily be dealt with by good training and proper equipment.
When I learned of side-mount diving in 2007, we had two systems available on the U.S. retail market (that I was aware of): the Dive Rite Nomad and Golem Gear Armadillo. Now at least half a dozen companies produce them.
Systems are even designed specific to the traveling diver (with weight restrictions) and for the diver who wants to frequently switch between back-mount and side-mount configurations.
I jumped to side-mount, via a homemade rig in 2007. Since finishing my cave class in back-mount double cylinders, I have never been found with a cylinder on my back since.
The last time I dove salt water (normally I am found in fresh water caves), I jumped in with a 3mm wetsuit, two aluminum 80-cubic foot cylinders, no lead weights, and minimal buoyancy compensator. The combination provided me with an amazingly free and comfortable diving experience.
Increasingly, our diving paradigm is shifting.
Next time you stand up and walk to the back of the boat, with a tank on your back, ask yourself what would make the experience better.
Imagine a better way!

Back to list of columns

June 28, 2012

Rain!

We love the rain, and the more rain the better since we know our underground rivers are locally recharged.
Our karst environment usually soaks up precipitation quickly, filling swamps that then overflow into sinkholes transporting nutrients and tannins down to our patiently waiting troglofites (blind cave critters).
Water that falls on sandy soil moves more slowly before reaching the pheatic conduits creating clear water weeks later. Tropical Storm Debby is no exception.
Now as a person who spends a lot of time underwater, I am particular about redundancy. In other words, I like back ups. While serving FSU as their dive safety officer, I was often accused of wearing a belt and suspenders (too much of a good thing). I want many choices so that when one option does not work, another will. If my re-breather fails to provide adequate breathing gas, I can turn to an abundance of traditional open circuit gas.
When I saw we had a storm approaching, I dutifully made sure my shop had a rebuilt sewer lift pump (pricey little devils). I replaced the float switches on my boats’ twin bilge pumps. I made sure there was an abundant supply of fuel for the home generator and even tested the emergency power system.
I tended our sail boat in St. Marks as the tide rose up over the docks, happily soaking my feet in the warm flooding river water. But I came to discover Monday night that all those preparations were not enough. I let my guard down briefly and unusual circumstances caught me out.
Complacency in the end is what catches us unprepared. I did not take this storm seriously enough, spending the afternoon at the shop while over 12 inches of rain fell in Crawfordville. Recall, I live underground. The power failed at home while I was at the center. No power means no electricity to run the pumps that keep my home dry during severe storms.
When my wife reached home at the end of the day, she found water at the door step, the garage already flooded. I followed and soon had the generator running, but the volume coming down overwhelmed the pump circuitry. Two hours later and we turned the tide, soaking out tile floors, but no further damage. We were exhausted, but happy to have learned yet another valuable lesson.
Tomorrow, I install a redundant pump, and seek ways to better monitor the power grid at home.
I love Wakulla County’s abundant water, and respect it’s unexpected surprises!

Back to list of columns

July 5, 2012

Rivers and mythology.

By Nicole Stanton

For thousands of years, across every civilization, mythology has revolved around water. There are mythical beings in the rivers, the lakes, the swamps, the caves, and of course the ocean. Before our age of scientific discovery, you would look at the spring in your back yard and ask yourself, was that a Naiad swimming in the waters? But wait, what is a Naiad?? And why is it living in your Spring? A Naiad is a Greek water nymph that was attached to flowing water, often depicted as a beautiful, nude woman bathing in the waters of her spring. It was said that a Naiad would die if her spring were to ever dry up.
The Celts believed that the river held mystical black horses called Kelpies, who would peek their eyes out of the water to watch the people on land, much the way our alligators do. One would lure unwary humans, especially children, to ride on it’s back and the Kelpie would take off with the rider into the deepest part of the river to drown it’s victim. Even today we watch our children closely as they approach the waters edge, but now we worry more about the gators than the kelpies.
As the conquistadors first discovered our waters, they would sail down our rivers and look over the rails of the ship to see the shadowy forms of mermaids swimming in the Florida rivers. When a sailor first saw this creature with long green hair undulating under the water as it swam away, he saw similarities to both man and sea. When looking over the rails of our own high dive in Wakulla springs I saw my first mermaid. Her long green hair was strings of algae flowing behind her as she swam, not side to side as other fish, but up and down as a human would with her spine oriented in the same fashion as other mammals. In that statement, I realized that the conquistadors weren’t far off. Mermaids are a marriage of man and the sea, Manatees are a marriage of mammals and the sea. They represent two worlds coming together and creating something straight from legends right in our back yards.
Though the conquistadors found mermaids in Florida, the Irish, Scotts, and Welsh found women (and a few men) living in the sea as well. They were the Selkie, seals who could shed their skins to walk on dry land. It was said that if you stole the skin of a Selkie and hid it from it’s owner, the Selkie would wed you and stay with you. However, they would pine for the sea, and if the Selkie ever found it’s skin, nothing on dry land, not love or money, could keep him/her from returning to the sea.
Today, when you look outside to your own community, you can see the mysterious waters of the Wakulla Springs cave system. In the hay-day of mythology, our springs would have been worshipped as divine. The home to Naiads, kelpie, mermaids, and ruled by it’s own river god. Today, Florida springs are in danger; many have been filled or contaminated by runoff toxins and sewage fields.
To the end of remembering the divinity of our treasure, this is but the first article exploring the myths and legends surrounding the water element.

Back to list of columns

July 12, 2012

A visit from the past.

By Joerg Hess

Those of you who have been following Gregg’s column learned long ago that he has led a very busy and in fact, full life. Back in 2000 he was just building the fourth university program, the Advanced Science Diving Program at FSU in Panama City when I joined him as a researcher.
The focus of my attention was the intricate details of rebreathers, a technology that Gregg has mentioned many times in this column. Rebreathers are an old technology by concept, but have only become viable for extended diving in science and recreation in the past decade or so. They facilitate an increase in exposure time by recycling the diver’s breath, thus allowing the use of much smaller tanks while at the same time mixing the ideal breathing gas on the fly.
If this sounds complicated, then it is only because we still don’t fully understand or appreciate the true requirements and capabilities of our own physiology. You can imagine that, as a researcher, this was (and still is) a wide open field and I was having the time of my life.
Gregg was instrumental in allowing me to pursue this research, and in turn I spent a lot of time and effort assisting him in building his academic program. A student joined us in our efforts by the name of Terry Jolly. While matching our enthusiasm and dedication, she also added her good looks to the formula, which undoubtedly increased the male participant’s interest and helped secure a large student enrolment.
What kept us all focused was the common goal of what we were trying to achieve. Mind you, rebreathers were very much in their infancy (even more so than they are today).
We dreamed of a time when rebreathers would become so easy to use that they required very little preparation, and allowed a diving freedom far beyond what we could do with open circuit.
We used the rebreathers that were available to us at the time, with all their limitations, during numerous underwater science projects, and brought home the data to prove the rebreather’s viability. While it was clear that the rebreathers at the time certainly matched open-circuit technology, their advantage was still debatable.
Fast forward a decade!
Terry got married, and now has three cute kids. Although she has had plans to become a scientist in the marine field, she accepted a job in a marketing agency, where she spends all day in front of a computer. Family life takes up all her spare time, and her gills have dried up.
Out of the blue we received an email from her informing us that she will be in the area and would like to stop by for a visit. It was certainly a pleasure to see her again after such a long time. She had not forgotten about our ideas and goals, only for us to realize that Gregg and I are where we wanted to be over a decade ago! The dives we do today far exceed what we did a back then, and is even less of a hassle with regards to preparation than we could have predicted.
As we have often pointed out in this column, knowledge and the advancement of technology have progressed dramatically in the last 10 years. Terry’s visit helped us put it back into perspective.
Some things have not changed much (she still looks great), and we still dream of where we want our program to be in 10 years time.
Some things have changed a lot (the advent of space-age technology in our diving).
We should continue to believe in our own rhetoric, at least once in a while.

Back to list of columns

July 19, 2012

What is it like to grow up as a diver?

By Nicole Stanton

Many times I’ve been referred to as a fish rather than a young woman. With both my parents being avid divers, I suppose that I grew up with saltwater in my veins. I remember snorkeling before I knew how to swim, and as those dreaded swimming lessons came, I refused to give up my fins. At the age of 10 my first diving lesson came from my father, his words were, “Breathe normally and don’t hold your breath!”
Looking back now I can tell that watching oceanographic documentaries and mimicking how a lion seal would swim was probably a strange behavior. But what I remember the most was the magic of it all.
When I was 13 I had the opportunity to dive at the Aquarius habitat, now the last underwater habitat in the USA, and rather than looking at the amazing feat of a home under the sea, I was playing with the fish. I was imagining that they were talking to me, just as if we were waiting for the bus on any street in America, and they would divulge what their daily lives were like. As life moved forward, opportunities arose that many people would strive for a lifetime to achieve.At 16 my father insisted that my big brother and I would be taking a cavern diving class so that, God forbid we ended up in a cave, we would have and idea of how to get out. I was hooked. I remember the moment well, as we descended into the last dive of the class, at Orange Grove Spring in the Peacock Springs State Park, the powerful lights of the divers illuminating this vast cavern that held at least half a dozen divers comfortably, the rocky crags hiding holes yet to be explored. The sheer potential of that dive drove me into cave diving just two years later.
At the age of 19, I began my new journey into diving, surface support. Now most people would say surface support isn’t diving! Well, I say that you don’t know how you’re diving until you know how your equipment is working during a dive. I spent the better part of the next four years learning how scuba equipment of all shapes and sizes worked.
I can’t say that I found myself underwater much, but the times that I did were magical. In Rhode Island, I dove the U-853 Submarine, a U-boat that came within just a few miles of the U.S. coastline during World War II. At 110 feet, all that remains off of Block Island is a shattered shell of a boat. Looking at the remains haunted me; the cold tendrils of the Atlantic shivering down my spine, knowing how all hands were lost when depth charges tore the submarine into three distinct pieces.
After a few years of barely diving due to my pursuit of an Electrical Engineering Degree, I found my way home and directly in a re-breather class. Most divers seldom have the means or the need to dive one of these amazing pieces of technology, but due to weight restrictions for my heart, it was either give up diving, or go high tech. Mixing re-breathers and cave diving meant that I could now explore to the back and beyond to my heart’s content.
Now at the ripe old age of 24, I am a re-breather, cave diver-certified and trained to perform maintenance most of the equipment that I may encounter during my travels.
And this is only the beginning. 😉

Back to list of columns

July 26, 2012

Bones!

In April I spoke of the Wakulla Springs Conveyor Belt that may be responsible for the deposition of bones in the front of the Spring’s cave.
But what of its reported pristine (undisturbed) nature?
I visited Tracy Revels’ fascinating book, “Watery Eden: A History of Wakulla Springs” (2002, Published by the Friends of Wakulla) in my preparation for a survey of local bone rooms. Chapter 6 is a good read regarding the history of Wakulla Springs bone deposits.
Following the suppression and removal of the Seminole Indians in 1840, visitors discovered large bones in the basin at Wakulla Springs. A report in 1850 by Sarah Smith attracted the attention of Professor George King of Newport, who began to remove bones in the Spring’s shallow waters using long handled tongs. All of his samples taken during this time period have subsequently been lost.
Over the next 90 years bones were removed from the Spring and put on display in Tallahassee and elsewhere.
In 1930 George Christie, then owner of Wakulla Springs, renewed recovery after uncovering bones while constructing the new swim area. He enlisted the help of the Florida Geological Survey to systematically recover the remainder of the bones of the basin. Tongs were not effective for the deeper bones, so they expanded their collecting options to include hard-hat diving, supported from a surface barge.
They pried the bones from the substrate, sucking out surrounding embedded debris. All provenience (relational information to other bones and debris) was, of course, lost. George then sent these fossils around North Florida to promote his proposed resort. Ed Ball, residing in Jacksonville, may have become aware of the spring that he later purchased from a display of these fossil bones.
Enough bones were pulled during this period to reconstruct a near complete Mastodon skeleton. It was first displayed at the FGS lab, then the Florida State College for Women in 1940 and finally, where it currently resides, Florida Museum of History in the R.A. Gray Building.
Many of the remaining bones collected have shown up in unexpected places including park flower beds and strategically located in the basin to permit visitors riding the glass bottom boat, full view of what must have caused the earliest enthusiastic bone removal. Once purchased by Mr. Ball, the caves were restricted for safety reasons until the mid-1950s.
In 1955 Gary Salsman and others working on a film set were given permission to dive the main vent of Wakulla Spring. For the next three years, and with the assistance of Stan Olsen from FGS, these divers pulled bones and artifacts from the Bone Room. This early team recovered mastodon, mammoth, deer, camel, giant ground sloth, bear and a large number of bone tipped spear points, often floating them out using air-filled pillow cases. They reached a depth of 240 feet and over 900 feet into the cave. Frank Fagan ended the bone recovery in 1961. Engineer Wally Jenkins (of the 1955 team) and scientist Larry Brill continued diving the cave for the next 30 years, until it was purchased by the State of Florida, in an effort to understand the hydrology of the Spring. These two introduced me to Wakulla Springs in 1975.
The age of cave exploration has since dominated Wakulla Spring, with dozens of divers passing over what is left in the bone room.
Northwest Water Management’s current meter that we set in the 1980s remains near the restriction of the room. Guide lines are now tied to massive bones placed on rocks jutting out into the void of large cave passage. An inverted water trough is set into the ceiling. Discarded water sampling tubing, pipes, cables and stage cylinders dot the landscape. The bone room was recently described as looking more like a lunar landing site than a pristine preserve.
A clean up is in order, then a surface photo and metal survey and finally a management plan for the future. Only then can we hope to get back to the question of bone research and preservation.
The Bone Room at Wakulla Springs is no longer pristine.

Back to list of columns

August 2, 2012

Not Like Home.

By Travis Kersting

In June I returned home to Minnesota for my grandfather’s 90th birthday. I visited family and friends whom I had not seen in many years.
The one thing I didn’t do was go diving and that’s only because I was not able to transport my dive equipment this time.
Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, is a mecca for freshwater fishing, boating, diving, camping and a variety of other water related activities. If you like being on the water, you would like Minnesota.
That sounds very much like Florida, but there are distinct differences that make Florida a frustrating place to enjoy these same activities.
Minnesota is frozen for much of the year but the water still draws entire communities for ice fishing, snowmobiling and ice diving. Often times the frozen barrier between you and that monster walleye is over three feet thick. Somehow, Minnesotans tolerate the cold and frequently people travel there from the warmer states for ice fishing.
The limits and seasons for fishing are mostly universal across the state of Minnesota, but a few lakes have their own regulations. The season to harvest fish depends on their spawning cycles and the ice. It’s common and legal to see people using the practice of “catch and release” all year (especially between seasons) in Minnesota.
In Florida there are different seasons for different fish and then there are also regulations for state versus federal waters. For someone who is new to Florida this can be most confusing. Often times I hear that the best thing to do is check the regulations online before you go out because rules change so often.
In Minnesota, if I want to go diving, I can drive up to any body of water and do so as long as the water is publicly accessible or the land owner grants permission. Most land owners actually really appreciate us divers. We can tell them what’s in their pond or pick up trash or help remove that rusty Chevrolet which was dumped in there in 1971.
All water is public in Minnesota. If I can fly in and land on a lake even if all the land is surrounded by private land owners, I still have a right to fish/swim/etc there. My favorite dive site was five minutes from my house and exceeded 200 feet deep, but it was totally open and unrestricted to divers, swimmers and fisherman alike.
Not one of the hundreds of places I dove in Minnesota did I have to pay a fee for access to the water. I have also never been asked for a certification card when diving in a state park or on private land.
The dive sites in Minnesota are not without hazards either. The winter cold or entanglement hazards or extreme depths could all become fatal to divers and yet we are all allowed to dive there and allowed to use our own judgment and to dive within our own limits.
Here in Florida I have to get special permission to dive almost anywhere inland. The parks all have different fees, operating hours, and rules for divers and many don’t allow diving at all. Some want to see certification cards and some want $25 per day for divers to use the park but $4 for swimmers. Some allow cave diving only and some allow open water diving too. Some allow diver propulsion vehicles and some don’t. Some require a certification for trimix (an expensive breathing gas mixture) even if the cave passage is well within the shallow air recreational limits.
In Florida divers are frequently seen trying to improve sites by adding steps to prevent erosion or picking up trash, yet we are still feared or disliked by much of the rest of the community.
I think Minnesota has been successful with its open access to anyone who wants to use the water. Why does Florida feel like the complete opposite?
Florida has an ever growing population of divers who all want to improve these places for EVERYONE yet we are treated with misunderstanding and segregation, why?
Coming from a place that embraces divers, I feel like an outcast here.

Back to list of columns

August 9, 2012

Rules for Safe Cave Diving

During discussions with leaders from Wakulla County, I became aware that many did not understand the great measures our diving community have taken to promote safe cave diving.
Several decades ago, when the cave diving community was a secret society, Sheck Exley wrote of a study he conducted of 800 Florida diving fatalities. He found most were educated people, unlike how they were portrayed.
Half were found to be in open water and were set aside. The remaining were then evaluated for cause of death. In this group, he found open water dive instructors, U.S. Navy divers, scientists and more people usually described as knowledgeable divers.
However, the largest subset of this group was found to lack overhead environment training (Rule 1: Formal Training).
The cave community turned to their training agencies and sought to correct this problem by providing a class that is an extension to open water diving called Cavern Diving.
All caves have a cavern. It is defined as the cave (overhead environment) entrance, no further than 200 feet in from the surface, no deeper than 100 feet, and always in natural daylight with a visibility of 40 feet or better. Cavern diving is not conducted at night.
During the cavern class, the rules for safe cave diving are discussed, to expose people to the hazards of cave diving. Cavern diving is now offered through all of the national diving training agencies.
Sheck went on to describe in his study, why people died in a cave. People became disoriented and got lost. Did you ever get lost at the mall? Caves are similar underground passages with many rooms and passages. They are easily confusing and even more difficult if the diver stirs up the sediment on the floor.
Dry cavers get lost also, but they have air all around them, unlike the diver who must carry his breathing gas. The solution is to run a continuous line to the surface, one that can be followed by touch, one with directional arrows indicating the way out. Trained cave divers ALWAYS follow or deploy a continuous line when cave diving (Rule 2).
The next was a lack of breathing gas management. Yes, they ran out of air, but more importantly, they failed to carry enough air to get back out of the overhead condition.
Open water divers are taught when they run low of air, just ascend, which is not possible in a cave. Cave (and cavern) air management includes turning around to exit when you reach two-thirds of your remaining breathing supply: one-third to return and one-third for emergencies that may crop up along the way (Rule 3).
A room with no windows or lights is dark. A cave is even darker. The study found perished divers carried few and unreliable lights. When they fail, without cave training, the diver is left with few options to find their way out. While a diver can never carry too many lights, the standard is for a primary (bright light) and two back up reliable lights.
Cavern divers use daylight as one light so they require a total of two. The third rule for safe cave diving is a minimum of three lights (Rule 4).
Back in the day of the study, air was the only gas available to divers. Narcosis was a problem when diving deeper than 130 feet. The study found divers narcotized at deeper depth, like being drunk, but underwater. The rule became limit your depth.
But today, divers can be trained on a readily available helium based mix that reduces narcosis, so the new rule is called narcosis management. Divers must know their breathing mixtures (Rule 5).
All cave divers are trained to follow these safe cave diving rules. Open water divers can learn to safely dive the cavern and learn the rules for safe cave diving in a weekend long class. The vast majority of people diving caves do so safely, that is with careful risk management.

Back to list of columns

August 16, 2012

Solo diving

By Travis Kersting

A while back I talked about redundancy and how divers of all levels have incorporated redundant equipment into their activity, such as spare gas supplies via redundant tank, two knives or line cutters, even backup masks.
There is a piece of equipment that you can’t bring extra though, unless you dive with a buddy, and that’s a brain.
You only have one, and no amount of money can buy you a redundant copy.
Diving without a buddy, that is solo diving, has almost always been considered taboo, primarily among recreational divers, and especially by the family members of these divers, and for reasons of various concerns.
A long time ago, early equipment may have been of questionable reliability, but there were other issues at play too. In those days, scuba regulators lacked a pressure gauge, or redundant air source (now called an “octopus”), meaning your buddy was your redundant air supply. Under those circumstances a dive buddy became a necessity.
Things have come a long way as far as equipment availability, build quality, and built in safety functions are concerned. The modern diver now has a certain level of redundancy built into their recreational life support package, but does this make solo diving OK?
Spear fishing seems to be a good example of two people jumping off the boat at the same time, only to split up almost immediately. This may happen for many reasons, including bad visibility, distraction due to a speared fish, or searching for a lost spear shaft.
These folks practice what is sometimes referred to as “same ocean buddy diving.”
Technically there is a dive partner around, but finding them in the event of an emergency is less than likely.
This may be considered acceptable, because in open water divers have the option to simply surface and solve their problems topside. However, some problems, like entanglement can’t be solved on the surface.
Many cave divers, but not all, have long been practicing solo diving. The reasons are as endless as the cave passages we go to explore. Are we crazy for it? Most would say we are crazy for even entering a cave.
Trained cave divers all follow a few basic rules to keep us and a buddy alive in the event of problems. Solo cave divers typically pad these rules for more of a safety buffer, and many divers add some extra rules for additional safety margin.
For instance, I always carry at a minimum one additional cylinder of decompression mix and a “buddy bottle” of bottom mix when cave diving solo. That makes 120 cubic feet of breathing gas which I have no intention of using. That is in addition to the cylinder of 100 percent oxygen hanging at 20 feet and while following the standard gas management practice for safe cave diving. I personally don’t limit my penetration distance or depth specifically for solo diving, but many cavers do impose additional restrictions on themselves.
Still, with all these pieces of redundant equipment and extra breathing gas I do lack a second brain.
So why undergo the increased risk?
Diving is peaceful for me, and not having someone else around to talk to or rush me means I can take more time to prepare my equipment and visualize the dive. During the dive I can take more time and pay attention to details I might otherwise overlook when monitoring a buddy.
These are details that come in handy when exiting in low visibility, often found when exploring smaller passages. Having muscle memory to immediately react to a problem, like a diminishing gas supply, is key to solo diving and to not turning an inconvenience into an emergency.
For me, solo diving is my preference. I dive longer, farther and calmer when I am alone. Most divers would likely be opposite of that and for good reason.
Diving alone, in cave or open water, is not for everyone but it also doesn’t have to be the high risk activity that most people think it is.
After all, we drive a car solo almost every day, and that is considered acceptable or even normal despite the accident statistics.

Back to list of columns

August 23, 2012

The Intern.

Over 20 years ago, I was teaching our introductory class in compressed gas diving at FSU and was frustrated that the staff assisting me was poorly trained in the mechanics of diving.
We had a leadership program to train enthusiastic students in Assistant Instructor, Dive Master and Instructor, but many who applied could not explain how our life support technology worked, let alone fix it. What to do?
I had just hired Michael Dunning, a man from the Isle of Man, to become our dive engineer, to be sure our life support equipment worked. He needed a lot of help and there was no money to hire additional staff. After many late night deliberations, he and I realized that we had a solution to several challenges.
I soon had a semester curriculum for a Dive Locker Technician that included training on nearly everything I saw missing in my Leadership Program. Students bought books but paid for training with volunteer labor. And because training required proficiency to become beneficial, Michael got his much needed help.
Michael filled in the considerable details and then assisted me through several classes, ultimately taking over, where I became the guest speaker.
Students first learned workplace safety procedures, then eased in to fill station operations. Filling high pressure cylinders can be challenging if you are not taught correctly.
Every week another topic, such as cylinder inspections, regulator repair, hydrostatic testing, gas blending, exposure suit repair, and the list went on for 15 weeks.
The final exam was a room full of stations, each with a question or problem technology to repair. Those who passed got a certification in Dive Locker Technology and a list of specific credentials from national agencies that went a long way toward future employment at dive shops around the country.
And I now had a prerequisite for my Leadership Program! In the space of one year, the quality of our growing dive locker, and our Leadership Program improved dramatically, enabling us to take on many more ambitious challenges in the decades to follow.
I carried the entire package to Panama City in 2000 to teach the Scientist in the Sea Program at the Naval Coastal Systems Center, followed by the Advanced Science Diving Program and ultimately the Underwater Crime Scene Investigations Project. None were possible without what we now call the Diving Intern.
I retired a few years ago. I was soon asked to provide the Diving Internship training privately.
When we opened Wakulla Diving Center in Medart, we incorporated the class much as it was taught at FSU. Travis Kersting now serves as my Dive Engineer and coordinated the interns. Justin Heath, the latest graduate of our internship this summer, is from the University of Texas in Austin where he has returned to continue classes. He is the 12th intern to graduate since my retirement from FSU.
But I cannot begin to explain the vitality these folks bring to our table.

Back to list of columns

August 30, 2012

The Storm.

Hurricane Isaac has everyone’s attention right now, mine included.
Over the last week, my daughter and I have been preparing for its visit by doing facility repairs and shutters in Panama City and Crawfordville.
My daughter was quick to point out she missed the social interactions that surround an impending hurricane when she attended college in Rhode Island.
We often visit others in support of everyone’s mutual crisis. My wife observed many of the honey-do items also get done in this crisis period! And the hurricane party (hosting friends living in evacuated areas) if the storm actually hits us, is a well known Wakulla tradition.
In the middle of this frantic hard work, we chanced upon a Saturday lunch with a seldom-seen friend. At the time, the storm was due to strike close by and in a few days, yet we all met for hot dogs at a favorite waterfront place.
They have a son the age of my daughter, both electrical engineers at the end of their college experience and in search of employment. We parents are at the other end of the work force experience, so the polar topics covered were entertaining.
The young adults saw the storm as exciting, refreshing and full of new opportunity. The parents saw the storm as foreboding, inevitable and something traditionally old.
John saw into a future where past technology fulfilled future needs. That happens to be my company’s motto “Back to the Future” where we teach rebreather skills using “old tools” in new ways. Everyone had much to contribute on this topic, being mostly engineers.
Bill Stone’s Wakulla deco habitat reborn as an escape pod, reduced helium use by using cost saving semi-closed technology, or just the use of a hydraulic ram off a fishing boat as a depth compensating controller on a tow sled. We found recreational technical divers have already met goals set by the professional diving community of two hours below 300 feet, so the bar must now be extended.
His wife observed the many human and other animal interactions not normally expected, such as squirrels bonding with human families. They have a pet squirrel that simply won’t move away. The squirrel chatters at anyone who interferes with her almond treats. She even tries to hide almonds in her adopted family’s hair.
I recalled an encounter I had under the Antarctic ice, when a familiar 2-year-old Weddel Seal that occupied our shared hole in the ice had issues. Only one of us could fit in the hole at a time. We could get him to move out by sitting in the hole and removing our fin (imagine watching someone removing their foot from their leg). But underwater, I had no such opportunity.
So I reached up and tugged on his flipper one day, then pulled away and awaited a great picture opportunity. Down he came, I took the picture, and while I was distracted with the camera, up he came from below to grasp me in a full body embrace. With mouth open, he planted several teeth marks in rapid succession on my mask plate, and then casually left me as if to say, don’t do that again.
The next day we were all friends again.
After three hours at lunch, with food long gone, we came to our senses that we had more work to do, and dropped back into our frantic work mode. But during that respite lunch, we ventured away from the storm and much beyond the realm of the immediate.
This storm related social encounter put the crisis into perspective as a passing anomaly in a much larger context brought out by sharing experiences we call life.

Back to list of columns

September 6, 2012

Oxygen.

The princess of gases and a requirement for life as we know it, oxygen is carefully managed by divers.
Most everyone takes this plentiful breathing gas for granted, since oxygen in the atmosphere surrounds us most of the time. We simply breathe it into our lungs, transport it to our cells through the blood and metabolism it to get energy with which to live.
Because water is 800 times denser than the air in our atmosphere, when we are underwater, the oxygen we breath is also denser. In other words, there is more of it per breath.
Most folks appreciate that more of a good thing is beneficial to a point. Oxygen is often provided in the hospital to encourage recovery from many injuries.
Air is no longer the same underwater. Air in the atmosphere at sea level has 21 percent oxygen or .21 of the complete mixture (most of the rest is nitrogen). But underwater, the added pressure increases the number of oxygen molecules per breath the deeper we go.
At a relatively shallow depth of 132 feet (five times the pressure of the surface atmosphere), the diver is breathing the equivalent of 100 percent oxygen at the surface. At a hospital that would be called oxygen therapy! Under pressure that is called Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBO).
Many hospitals provide HBO therapy using a hyperbaric chamber in which to compress patients to treatment depths. Capital Regional Medical Center in Tallahassee has such a chamber under the direction of Dr. William Kepper. Patients with injuries, carbon monoxide poisoning and other maladies are prescribed HBO treatments.
An excess of oxygen becomes toxic to our body. Underwater as divers, we can expose ourselves to greater concentrations of oxygen than on land, making management of the gas much more critical. Air does not reach that critical oxygen dose (a PO2 of 1.6) until 218 feet (not likely seen by recreational divers). But a Nitrox blend of 40 percent reaches the same critical dose at a depth of 99 feet in the ocean.
Divers manage their oxygen by selecting an appropriate blend that is safe at their intended depth. We call this depth the Maximum Operating Depth or MOD.
The therapeutic benefit however, is seldom the reason divers select an oxygen blend. We are most often interested in diluting the nitrogen in the breathing medium by using oxygen.
Our decompression stress created by the greater concentration of nitrogen at depth, limits our dive time. The lower the nitrogen in the breathing mixture, the more time we can spend underwater. We balance the need to reduce nitrogen against an excess of oxygen.
A more traditional use of oxygen on or near the surface post dive works to improve the elimination of the excess nitrogen still left in the body. The application of higher oxygen concentrations improves the safe removal of nitrogen during decompression, that period of 24 hours after the dive.
So we use oxygen to minimize the nitrogen we absorb during the dive and then later, during decompression, we use oxygen to increase the elimination of nitrogen.
Oxygen is the key to a safer dive when carefully managed underwater, and has the unintended benefit of hyperbaric therapy.
Ever wonder why diving can be so addictive?

Back to list of columns

September 13, 2012

A change in the season.

The cooler weather is a welcome change that marks more than just the end of our summer. The beginning of the school year also marks a change in the rhythm of our culture. Parents, now distracted by the demands of a new school year, are no longer thinking about going to the beach, diving or fishing. By the end of August, customer traffic at Wakulla Diving Center has dropped from 20 to 4 a day.
By the end of September, our cave diving community will have replaced the ocean focus folks, especially this year with the much anticipated opening of the springs of Wakulla Springs State Park. This enthusiasm brought Steve Cushman from Texas to open Cave Connections, a dedicated cave diving store just to the west of Indian Springs on Rt 267. The National Speleological Society’s Cave Diving Section scheduled their national conference at Wakulla High School this year! Folks from across Europe have been planning their diving vacations in anticipation of this great opportunity.
Only, one small detail was omitted. The State of Florida said no, go away, we don’t want your business in Wakulla County.
So, we will continue to truck our customers out of the county to spend their funds in Jackson, Lafayette, Suwannee, and counties to the south who have recognized the value of this community. I don’t know what the new dive store will do. I suspect the NSS-CDS may reschedule their conference of 300 people elsewhere in the state.
We are now digging in for a series of in-house projects to expand alternative diving opportunities, such as travel to other counties, off shore ventures, and even more rebreather stuff. The national diving front is an alternate arena we are now free to pursue. Next summer will come soon enough.
And please don’t talk to me about jobs or the economic needs of our county. I just don’t think we care.

Back to list of columns

September 20, 2012

Winter Storage.
The winter brings cooler and rougher ocean water that often lessens diver enthusiasm. If you want to continue diving during the winter, the caverns of North Florida from Morrison Springs and Jackson Blue to our west, Orange Grove, Peacock, Troy and Ginnie to our east and Divers Den and Blue Grotto to our south
make for wonderful dives (as long as you are Cavern qualified). Their waters are usually clear and constant temperature year around. The drive time is between one and two hours. Those who can, travel to warm dive destinations in the winter. When winter interest step up such as hunting, school and football, our diving equipment is forgotten. How should we store it and where?
Proper storage now can save money and needless delays next spring. So gather up your dive equipment and let’s get started. Many folks take their regulator in for its annual inspection before storage, others in the spring before use.
Cylinders need to be stored full of breathing gas, or completely empty and open. A partially filled aluminum cylinder stored in a closet becomes a bomb when your
house burns down.
Recall you basic physics: you can expect a 5 psi increase in pressure for every 1 degree increase in ambient temperature. A full cylinder at 3000 psi will pop its safety burst disc before the cylinder melts down and relieve the pressure of
the cylinder. A half-filled cylinder will not, resulting in a failure to contain the gas and a sudden explosive rupture. Shrapnel from the cylinder wall will cause further damage and possible injury.
Now is the time to inspect the dates for testing and schedule any tests before you need to use your cylinders. We are often asked to fi ll out of hydro or VIP cylinders in the spring, causing further unwanted delays. Store your cylinders standing up with some type of restraint to keep them from falling over. Cylinders may be
tied to a wall or closet using an eye bolt and some 1/4 inch line from the bolt and around the valve. Steel round bottom cylinders need a boot to be more stable standing up.
I am certain you rinse your equipment after each dive. But now you should soak all of it. Fill your BC with fresh water and submerge it in a tub of fresh water overnight. Be sure to seal the fi rst stage of your regulator (dust cap) before submerging the entire regulator in with the BC.
Yes, toss in your fi ns, mask, snorkel, gloves, speargun, dive gear bag and wet suit as well. You need to soak out the salts before a long storage. The next day, remove the equipment from the tub and drain the BC, hang everything out to dry in the shade, and infl ate the BC with dry air from your tank.
Once dry, your rubber parts can be lightly powdered with talcum, a natural preservative. I do not recommend dumping talcum into the snorkel or the second stage of the regulator however. If you forget to clean it out next spring, breathing talcum is unpleasant. Roll or fold up your wet suit (do not hang it on a wire hanger!) and store it on a shelf away from any motors or gas furnace as ozone generated by these devices will destroy the rubber. Hang your BC in the same closet on a strong hanger or one that is designed for dive equipment.
Your regulator can be coiled up on a shelf or attached to the special BC hanger that has clips for the regulator. Much of the rest of your equipment can go back into your gear bag, now that it has dried, and stored on yet another shelf.
When the soft spring breeze beckons you to dive again, you will find your dive equipment ready to reliably serve your underwater needs once again.

Back to list of columns

September 27, 2012

Up the proverbial creek with out a paddle.

Every time I drive by the exit to Steinhatchee off Route 19, I reflect back to a distant time when we were engaged with Florida law enforcement to search for a person whose skull was discovered underwater.
When we first evaluated the site before the contract, it was a small clear stream with little flow. But when we returned several weeks later, the Steinhatchee was anything but its lazy predecessor.
We set up camp at the small roadside park for a two week survey of the river bottom. The skull that brought us to this river was that of a young woman with what appeared to be a bullet hole. We were tasked to find the remainder of the body’s bones. The once-small basin, the target of the study, was now three times the size and near zero visibility. Thanks to Jim Dunbar of the Division of Archaeological Research, we borrowed their large pump and suction dredge system. The university tossed in the band masks with communications that were fed by low pressure breathing air to the heavily weighted single diver expected to operate the dredge in the water.
On land a person watched the effluent that was pumped out on to a sieve table where bones should settle while sand and water fell through.
The water was also cold this time of the year. So we bundled up in thick wet suits and each took our turn sweeping the basin floor hoping to pull up human bones.
The work dragged on as we cleared one section of the river basin after another.
One day I was at the dredge head by myself with everyone hard at work on shore. They had suited me up carefully to minimize the effects of cold water. I was told they found that if they tucked the hood of the band mask under the wet suit and zipped the wet suit jacket up tight around my neck that I might be warmer. If I needed anything I could just ask for it over the communications line. I was heavily weighted against the river current to stay in place and in only 5 feet of water. What could be easier? The diesel pump was loud and the staff tired by this time in the project.
As I progressed along the bank, I noticed the water level in my mask was slowly rising. I was not concerned as I could purge the mask by venting more gas, so I let the water rise a bit more. When I finally tried to vent the water out, I found venting only made more water rush in. Since a band mask combines the breathing area with the seeing area, my ability to breathe was diminishing rapidly. I called out for help to pull me out and got no reply.
I was too heavy to just swim up! So I moved to emergency plan B, to just pull the mask off and breathe from a spare regulator at my side. But try as I might, the mask was so well tucked in to my wet suit that I could not budge it off.
Here I was, about to drown, with all this wonderful technology and me, the director of the program, up the proverbial creek with out a paddle in 5 feet of water! I finally got angry at myself, grabbed the band mask, tore it apart, and off my head. Adrenalin is useful stuff when you need it. With my backup regulator firmly in my mouth, I dragged myself back to shore to find everyone over looking at the sieve were bones were showing up from my efforts, distracted by the thrill of discovery. They later proved to be deer bones.
We found many bones on that project, but none of them human. To my knowledge, the mystery remains unanswered. And in almost 50 years of diving all over the world, that was the closest I came to dying underwater.

Back to list of columns

October 4, 2012

Symbiosis.
In graduate school I studied marine animals that live together, each presumably benefiting from such a relationship.
The animal that benefits at the expense of the other, as in slowly consuming its live host, is a parasite. If one outright eats the other, we would call this predation.
What I studied was called commensalism. I sought a host that provided residence for these animals, such as a coral head or anemone and then identified the players. To do so, I laid out a 10 meter square underwater grids and laid them over a reef.
Over a summer in 1975, I located all of the Lebrunea anemones within these grids, tagged their sites, and returned to take a census of the occupants. Lebrunea danae is an anemone that looks like an algae, but has stinging cell batteries that has gained the reputation as being the “stinging algae.”
What I found was a community of small animals including fish, shrimp, crabs and brittle starfish, all occupying different spaces in and around the anemone.
Many, like the Arrow Crab and Peterson Shrimp were also found on other anemone species commonly found on patch reefs off Wakulla County. Others, like the Yucatan and Thor shrimp, and Mithrax comensalis crab, are more typical of warmer waters.
While many folks will quickly recognize the colorful Anemone fish from documentaries, none of them exist (yet) in the Gulf of Mexico. The clinid fish I found were equally small but drab in color.
OK, a summer of census taking makes for a nice paper but why are they living together?
Everyone in the eat-or-be-eaten world seeks shelter from predators. Anemones provide a form of shelter that packs a punch if a predator gets too close, so living either under the tentacles or algae filled “fronds,” or close enough to dive for cover makes sense.
I once set a time lapse camera on one of my anemones and overnight documented a Mithrax crab scurrying out for algae nearby. Then in one frame a very large eye of a fish dominated the screen with the crab in the foreground facing the camera. The next frame has a large mouth moving into view, and the next frame, the side of a large fish and no crab, ever again.
Trumpet fish are seen drifting vertically over the reef, mimicking flotsam, only to suddenly dive into the reef to grab small animals too far from cover. I doubted the anemone gets much from these commensals, but maybe so.
The Periclimenes shrimp are known fish cleaners. They set up what is called a cleaning station where fish stop by, open their mouth and get organic debris pulled from their mouth and gills. In the early morning or late afternoon, I have often seen queues of waiting fish for a turn at the cleaners.
Some larger fish display to the waiting shrimp, which dance in return before cleaning begins. They can remain at the station for several minutes engaged in what could be described as very risky business. The shrimp clearly pull at sensitive places (and fish winch) and the fish are quite capable of eating the shrimp but they don’t.
So how does this complex work? What benefit does the anemone, shrimp, and fish get by their mutual cooperation? Think about it and I will continue the story next week.

Back to list of columns

October 11, 2012

Symbiosis II

Animals live together, with intricate relationships, even in the marine environment. Recall animals that eat others are called predators, those that consume their host slowly without killing them are called parasites. But many that work together are called commensals. We see cooperation as either mutual or one sided. The egret that walks near a cow is watching for the cow to stir up bugs or other food, which it opportunistically takes. The Remora fish follows sharks, turtles and rays, even adhering to their host, to detach and feed off the scraps of a feeding frenzy. These are usually one sided relationships.
On the patch reefs I studied, I found a community of creatures that lived together. The algae-like anemone Lebrunea (and others), was the host for crabs, shrimps, star fish and small fish, some of which played a role in the health of the reef fish. Several species of shrimp called Periclimenes, are known to clean fish. During dawn and dusk, usually, fish attend these anemone cleaning stations, lining up to have their mouth, gills and body parts picked over by these shrimp. Scientists have argued that the fish just like to be ticked, and as such gain nothing from the relationship. The shrimp clearly get the food, flesh or parasites, they pick out of the teeth of the awaiting fish. Do the fish value this service?
First, I noticed that non-resident fish lined up to be cleaned by one shrimp species, and the resident fish lined up in front of cleaning stations of another shrimp species. So I set forth to document not only which fish species like which shrimp species, but how each fish partitions the reef. I first learned how to study territoriality by watch birds (specifically Mockingbirds) in a cemetery. The birds hop from headstone to headstone singing outwardly from their defended space. By drawing their path and encounters with others, I can define their territory. Periodically, they will fly back to a nest or feeding area. And periodically, they will fly up high and leave the area for water or other social options.
My resident fish did exactly the same thing, swimming from one prominence to another, not singing, per se, but interacting with others at their territorial boundary. Periodically they would swim high up over the reef and go to another part of the undefended reef and soon return. Within their territories, I often found a resident cleaning station, nest of eggs or feeding area. I once found an anemone without cleaners outside of any fish’s territory. I placed a cleaner and within a few minutes, the adjourning defending fish included the station into its territory. Different species with overlapping territories each spent time at shared cleaning stations. A pecking order became apparent based upon fish size, the larger the more dominant.
One day well into the study, I saw a butterfly fish heading straight into a cleaning station in the heart of the reef. They eat anemones, and began tearing this station apart, shrimp and crabs jumping off, making quite the ruckus. Immediately, several small Bicolor Damsel fish jumped in adding to the ruckus and trying, unsuccessfully, to push the larger Butterfly fish away. Soon the Cooco Damsel fish joined in and began pushing the intruder away. The Three Spot Damsel was next, nipping at the now fleeing Butterfly fish. I thought the show was over when a foot-long Grasby Grouper rose up off the reef and took a bite that disabled the Butterfly fish. All were fish I had recorded attending the cleaning station and now defending it from predation.
Naturally, I next removed all the defending fish from a cleaning station and watched in amazement, the immediate destruction of the resident cleaning station. Within one hour, all the cleaners were gone. The anemone had either moved or been eaten by the next morning. Fascinating community structure! Can we learn from them?

Back to list of columns

October 18, 2012

Dive Education

Now that the summer is over, the weather is cooling down and the number of requests for basic diver training has gone up. Folks are preparing for the adventures of next spring now that school is back in session and the family shifts into a different routine.
I have been training people to breathe compressed gases underwater for 45 years. The answer to a request for diver training is seldom the same.
I ask what the anticipated outcome from this requested training might be?
Parents want their kids to dive with them. Spouses want to accompany each other underwater. Fishermen want to spear fish in their native habitat. Scientists want to collect data below the surface. Police want to collect evidence or a body that has been dumped in a sinkhole. Clam fishermen want to harvest their catch. People want to dive for good health. Photographers want to capture images of the silent world. People want to build artificial reefs. Mostly, people want to see beautiful reef fish.
I am always pleased at the variety of things we want to do or see underwater.
I begin by encouraging them, regardless of age, to get a mask, snorkel and fins and learn how to breath-hold dive. Just about any age can do this activity called snorkel diving.
We usually collect scallops by holding our breath and briefly sliding below the surface to search for the blue-eyed swimmers. And kids can practice in their supervised family pool, strengthening swimming skills until they are old enough to move to the next step.
As a family, I took my kids into surface supplied diving first. I placed a compressor on the boat and supervised them breathing from a regulated gas supply while watching from the surface until they were confident and informed enough to join me at very shallow depths. This approach works for adults also. There is no heavy cylinder on your back and you are on a leash!
Freedom from any connection to the surface is the ultimate objective however, and a Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus is what most folks want. A traditional quality scuba class will take five days, include lectures to learn details about the physics and physiology of the environment, local residents and the technology. Pool training to master skin and scuba skills takes the same amount of time.
The last two days of the class are dedicated to checkout dives, hopefully in clear and somewhat warm water. How this class is bundled together is up to the instructor and students to arrange, either as weeknight lectures with weekend water work, or morning lecture with afternoon pool sessions.
In the end, the certification earned is a learner’s permit to depths no deeper than 60 feet.
Classes with couples are taught differently from those with kids and different again from training police officers. They each have their charm and challenges.
I understand that Wakulla High School has a new Engineering Program. I wonder if they might be interested in our Dive Engineer curriculum taught along these same lines? Safety through education!

Back to list of columns

October 25, 2012

10 things you can learn from cave divers.

By Travis Kersting

I frequently find myself rummaging through old files or documents and sometimes I come across a real gem. I found a brochure from Dive Rite, a local dive equipment manufacturer in Lake City, titled “10 things you can learn from cave divers.”
I tend to agree, recreational divers could learn a few things from cave divers but arguably today’s cave divers could stand to learn a few things from fellow open water divers too.
Buoyancy is at the heart of any underwater activity, no one wants to be stuck to the bottom due to overweighting or fighting just to sink. Proper use of that inflator valve and your own lungs can only come with practice and time in the underwater world. Every dive should be a conscious attempt to get better at controlling your position in the water column until you can maintain a precise depth with only your gauges. This skill is vital to a diver’s safety and to the conservation of our reefs and caves.
Trim is a skill which goes hand-in-hand with buoyancy. To be qualified in cave diving these two things must be well tuned. In the open water environment trim will help you move more effortlessly through the water, conserving precious breathing gas, and extending your time on the bottom. Seldom would I argue that equipment will solve a problem over proper practice but when it comes to trim some equipment certainly makes it easier to maintain.
Take only what is necessary to complete the dive. We have all done it or seen someone do it. You know, strap every gadget and gizmo available to themselves before jumping into the blue.
Base the equipment you take on the mission of the day and stow backup or safety equipment away where it’s available. If you are shooting video then it’s unlikely you will require a lift bag, three dive knives and a spear gun.
In cave diving we are often faced with the need to carry multiple cylinders, reels, extra lights, etc. and yet none of these should hang below the body. Dangly objects become easy snag hazards and also contribute to a loss of swimming efficiency. In cave diving we don’t want things to hang below us because that could snag on rocks, disturb silt on the bottom and impede our exit.
Follow the rule of thirds. This rule has been keeping cave divers alive for a long time and we don’t see the rule disappearing anytime soon. Open water divers could benefit from the added safety margin too. Next time you go diving allow for one-third of your remaining breathing mix (typically 1000psi) as a reserve. That means leaving the bottom or putting that last fish on the stringer at about 2000psi. Then when you hit the surface and the swim back to the boat is 300 foot away you can take a bearing, descend to 15 feet and swim without the waves beating you up.
This buffer also allows for time to handle an emergency at your max depth or to complete some unplanned decompression. Larger cylinders, double tanks, or side-mounted cylinders diving mean you still get the same bottom time as before (if not more) but you have more than enough gas in reserve.
Even if you have no interest in becoming a cave diver you can improve your diving experience by using some of the skills and equipment cave divers use and be that much safer.

Back to list of columns

November 1, 2012

The Public Safety Dive Team.

My family has remained glued to the Weather Channel monitoring Hurricane Sandy’s assault on the East Coast.
Our hearts and thoughts are with friends and relatives who must evacuate as the ocean surge waters are driven inland, flooding homes, roads, and lives.
We empathize because, in Wakulla County, we know what tropical storms can do to a community.
When storm water inundates a community, the Public Safety Dive Team becomes a welcome life saving and investigative force.
The Public Safety Diver is a fireman or police officer who has been trained beyond the basic scuba level, to include water rescue and/or underwater investigations, depending upon their specialization. Special teams have organized in various Florida counties.
Leon County has a respected county Public Safety Dive Team, once lead by Sgt. Ken McDonald, now retired.
Sgt. McDonald participated at my request with Florida State University’s national Program in Underwater Crime Scene Investigation and published his own manual.
He trained my research team through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Public Safety Diver Program offered at the Pat Thomas Law Enforcement Academy under Tallahassee Community College. We have wonderful regional resources.
Wakulla County once had such a Public Safety Dive Team based upon the success of the Leon County’s team. Budget cuts and changes in priorities disbanded our county team.
They left behind a significant dive locker now under lock and key awaiting better economic times.
Periodically, I am visited by previous team members at the Wakulla Diving Center expressing their hope one day conditions will permit a return of the team.
You can imagine my pleasure when Madison County came to us recently to train their newly forming Public Safety Dive Team.
The two month training began this week, working with four sheriff’s deputies at our center. This team will begin with the basics and specialize with underwater investigations.
We have a shallow pond on our property, in which we will install an obstacle course for problem solving challenges, including a ship wreck, entanglements, overhead obstructions and other topics.
I welcome our county’s Public Safety Dive Team, currently disbanded, to stop by and collaborate through the center, to refresh their skills and network with Leon and Madison county’s dive teams.
Perhaps together we can more cost effectively respond to a regional crisis, such as the one currently hitting the New York region along the East Coast.
The momentum has started! Let’s get organized.

Back to list of columns

November 8, 2012

Cold Water Diving

We know when the ocean water temperature begins its decline when the clambers and underwater bridge inspectors show up asking for thicker thermal protection. Most everyone else has hung up their fins for the year and are oiling up their rifles for hunting season. As the winter diving season progresses, thermal requests move from thicker wet suit to dry suits. There are plenty of challenges involved in finding the warmest solution for your investment. The question is where to start and what is the progression?
Wet suits work by capturing water under a protective garment that your body can heat up. If the suit fits too loosely, this warm water escapes and is continually replaced by cold water the body must reheat (at great expense and discomfort). This garment itself has thermal properties like land clothing, except that it works in water. The thicker the garment, the more heat it can hold from escaping through the material. Wet suits must fit tightly to work and be thick enough to keep the heat in. Most think the colder the water, the thicker must be the garment.
We must consider what you have been wearing this past year. Remember that new ultra stretch, easy to put on wet suit? Well, it was great for mildly cool water but the price you paid for comfort is offset by the loss of its thermal properties the deeper you dive. Wet suit garments are made of Neoprene, a nitrogen gas matrix in rubber, that is subjected to the same physical gas laws of compression that cause Barotrauma (such as an ear squeeze) and greater breathing gas consumption the deeper we dive. The suit literally shrinks in thickness, the deeper you dive, loosing a corresponding insulating capacity.
The next warming step is to layer several garments under the suit such as a T-shirt or a hooded vest. Thirty percent of your body’s heat is lost from the head and neck area. Reducing water flow under the suit will also retain more precious body heated water. Upgrading to a thicker wet suit will be warmer, but most thicker wet suits are also more restrictive.
The secret is to keep the water your body has warmed from escaping by neck, wrist and ankle seals. New suit designs are more form fitted, joint flexing, cloth lined and sealed systems. They keep everything in until you unzip the system or over pressure it. Yes, there are two types of divers out there, those that admit they pee in their wet suits and those that lie about it. Cold water on the skin causes vasoconstriction of the extremity veins and a shunting of blood to the body’s core. This build up of plasma must be disposed of, so the body dumps the extra fluid to the bladder, which when released, does make you feel warmer for a short while if you are wearing a wet suit.
Several engineers in Maryland came up with a simple and logical next step. Rather than invests up to $2,000 in a dry suit to stay warm during the winter, they heated the water under their sealed wet suit with a battery supported heating pad. Bikers have been using a heating pad under their jackets for years. Divers already carried lead as added buoyancy control, so the lead is now in the battery instead. The cost of the technology is a quarter that of a new dry suit, and has many applications.
Dry suits have come a long way as well. They do seal the water out by maintaining an air pocket around the body in which dry clothing keeps you warm. A gas source is required to compensate for increased pressure at depth, and additional training is required to accommodate added buoyancy challenges. But new dry suit designs dive more like wet suits these days, and can accommodate the same heating pads used in wet suits. As our community matures, we incorporate more creature comforts every day.

Back to list of columns

November 15, 2012

Aplysia, a sea slug

By Heather Kunigelis

Aplysia, which you may more commonly know as the sea hare, is a sea slug, that is found eating algae and sea grass off our Florida coast.
Aplysia, and all other sea hares, were named in ancient times because their rhinopores, a pair of sensory organs which grow out of the top of their heads, look much like the large rabbit ears. Aplysia are generally a few inches long, but can grow up to a foot, and can range in color from yellowish green to black depending on species.
If you happened to find an Aplysia out of the caressing support of water, you probably would not be very impressed; they tend to shrink and look, poetically, a bit like a big ball of snot. In the water, things are quite the opposite. Aplysia moves with beautiful grace, and can swim short distances by moving flaps of skin called parapodia much like a bird flapping its wings in the sky.
Beyond pure grace, Aplysia are party animals of the sea. These hares are hermaphroditic, which allows each individual to mate with both males and females at once. When mating they secrete pheromones, chemicals which attract more animals to come mate. This leads to a wild mating behavior, known commonly as “daisy chaining” in which up to 20 animals at once may reproduce with animals in a line, functioning as both sexes at once.
Even after having kids or in this case long spaghetti-like strand of eggs, Aplysia are still up for dancing. They exhibit a behavior where they will waive their head from side to side. Hares can be characterized by this behavior.
When not busy partying, Aplysia make sure to do their part to contribute to society and to the scientific community. Aplysia have a simple nervous system, and large neurons, making them an ideal organism for the study of their nervous system (neurobiology).
Eric Kandel of Columbia University was awarded a 2000 Nobel Prize for his work which showed how several learning and chemical responses worked on the cellular level in Aplysia. And Aplysia aren’t the only smart ones in the family; their cousin Bursatella, the frilled sea hare, has a protein in their defensive ink which has been isolated for its anti-HIV properties.
In fact, lore says that Aplysia have been at work since biblical times, when they were used for making ink.
I suggest that you go and meet an Aplysia for yourself. When you do, be polite and gentle; as if you are rude, much like an octopus, this slug may defensively secrete a reddish purple ink at you. If one inks on you though, no harm will come, as this ink isn’t toxic to humans.
If you keep one in your aquarium, the ink it excretes may kill everything else in the tank if it gets upset.
Aplysia numbers in the grass bed can vary greatly from year to year, so if you can find one off the coast of the panhandle, you can always meet one at Gulf Specimen Lab in Panacea.

Back to list of columns

November 22, 2012

A booth featuring a site in Florida where divers and manatees can swim together, at the Diving Equipment Manufacturing Association (DEMA) show. (PHOTO BY GREGG STANTON)

What brings tourists.

Every year my staff and I travel to the Diving Equipment Manufacturing Association (DEMA). We then drive on to visit suppliers all the way up to Washington.
Thousands of dive operations – stores, travel destinations, manufacturers, environmental groups and training agencies – all converge to inspect each other and promote their cause. Their displays fill a convention center for four days, spilling into the night with after hour meetings brokering deals and generally moving the industry forward.
We attend to learn, to decide on new products for next year, and network with the many friends that build up over the years. This year we were bombarded with the disbelief that Wakulla Springs would remain closed to diving. Many told us they were altering their plans to go elsewhere and wished us well.
We investigated travel options to move our customers to other diving destinations with greater visions of prosperity. We have also expanded into other income revenue opportunities such as expanding our hydrostatic retesting capability, Underwater Crime Scene Investigation technology, and of course new rebreathers. There are many places to put investment funds.
Then we stumbled upon the display shown above and marveled at their audacity! It seems for years, at a site just three and a half hours drive south of Wakulla, a community created a dive destination. They are now advertising nationally at the DEMA, about a place where divers and manatees can swim together. Just that feature alone attracts thousands of tourists who spend millions of dollars in a small community. This easily justifies paying for this expensive display booth at DEMA.
We congratulated them for their courage and insight. Because their manatee became so valuable, the community protects and supports all of the systems that surround the attraction.
Just like the hunting associations that provide more resources to promote the animals they harvest to maintain a healthier stock, the manatee at this dive destination are protected by much more than a regulation. As a result the community is rewarded with jobs and prosperity.
Why can’t we share?

Back to list of columns

November 29, 2012

Diving, it’s on sale.

By Travis Kersting

It’s that time of year again when the stores lay out their best pricing on gizmos and gadgets in an effort to compete for your holiday money.
Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and of course last minute Christmas Eve specials are all supposed to be too good to pass up.
The dive industry has embraced the holiday season as a sales time but perhaps for different reasons than department stores.
The Dive Equipment Manufacturers Association convention is held each year just prior to the holiday season. Here the manufacturers dish out their new toys and politely inform their dealers that much of what we have in stock has been discontinued.
This year the trend seemed to be ever-increasing in the direction of discontinued items but not because last years model isn’t good!
From my perspective, the scuba industry is trying to grab new markets so we see an increase in color variety and increases in goods tailored for women.
As a result, the regulator with a black ambient pressure cap now has a red and black cap.
Everything else is identical but last year’s model is now available for probably half of the cost of the new one.
Just about any piece of equipment is available in pink, in an attempt to attract the female shopper, but more importantly equipment is actually being designed with women’s shape and/or needs in mind.
The manufacturers often throw a bone to the small dealers and offer promotions or specials for orders placed at DEMA.
Things like cylinders and lead are available with free shipping and package deals are at nearly every booth.
As a diver, considering owning their first cylinder, this is definitely the best time to buy because so much of the cost in cylinders is associated with shipping.
DEMA was also out promoting an array of lion fish products. Everything from mini, travel friendly, pole spears to entire cook books.
The lion fish has become quite a nuisance and an entire industry has grown around it.
Perhaps you will find lion fish on a few tables this holiday season, right next to the green bean casserole.
Equipment specials are not the only thing going for divers, training and travel opportunities abound.
This is traditionally a slow time — winter, I mean — for dive stores, but ironically it’s some of the best time for diving.
Visibility usually improves in the winter months and dive sites are not as crowded.
New divers often overlook the benefits of winter diving because cold can be a huge distraction.
This means you can often book training for yourself, or as a gift, at enormous discounts and receive more privatized classes.
If travel and warm water is what you want, book now for the spring or next winter trips.
You will find the best pricing as the boats are looking to fill their remaining seats for February to May trips.
Early booking for next year is often available in installments to lessen the financial burden.
Interestingly enough, the Bahamas is not recognized as a prime dive destination in the winter because it’s too cold.
To me, being from Minnesota, the Bahamas was one of our more popular winter trips because it wasn’t too hot.
For the Floridian in you it’s probably best to look a little closer to the equator. We will be offering a trip to Belize, probably, next winter.
It’s a great time to buy a TV but you will likely get just as much enjoyment out of some fresh scuba equipment or a dive course and the later will help to burn off the calories from the holiday cookies.

Back to list of columns

December 6, 2012

Rebreathers for everyone!

By Joerg Hess

Gregg and I have been on the road for the last two weeks, visiting other diving communities to network and find out what is happening in the big world of diving.
We do this, while not often enough, on a regular basis. It allows us to step out of the daily quest for detail, and see the bigger picture.
The big story is that PADI, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, the largest recreational training agency in the world, has embraced Rebreathers for everyone!
As part of the journey, we met up with former students and potential collaborators, attended parties sponsored by equipment manufacturers and participated in platform upgrade training sessions.
While entertaining, it was not quite the events we were accustomed to. The main drink served at socials was an inexpensive light beer, and girls in shorts and cowboy boots danced on the tables. The whole scene reminded us of the movie “Coyote Ugly.”
Any organization or facility ends up attracting like-minded people. The clientele that Wakulla Diving Center usually attracts are people that seek advice and service, as well as collaboration and mentorship. An appropriate party setting for us would much more likely involve wine and live music.
So there is, to our surprise, a clear demographic separation between divers.
Rough and tough, death-cheating, go-getters are clearly part of the diving community. Strong egos become both a method of survival, as well as social classification.
On the other hand there is the sophisticated enthusiast who ends up doing much more advanced dives by simply involving careful consideration and preparation. At the aforementioned party we encountered the former (to our surprise).
In our daily operation we are involved with and prefer the later.
This distinction between dive types will merge as the more technical diving equipment, such as rebreathers, become more integrated into the general diving community.
Since diving is an act of natural selection, we expect to see what separates the wheat from the chaff. We hope to provide guidance to those who seek the adventure without the hype.

Back to list of columns

December 13, 2012

The Road Trip.

Winter training continues now that we are back from a 7,500 mile, month long road trip. We set out at the beginning of November to attend the Diving Equipment Manufacturers Association (DEMA) in Las Vegas, Nev.
I hate flying, encourage staff to join me on the road, and visit collaborating facilities along the way. So I drive whenever I can.
Not surprisingly, I drive a diesel Jetta, which has wonderful mileage and plenty of room. Two years ago I drove our diesel Sprinter because I needed to get all our DOT banks hydrostatically tested at one of the oldest stations in the country, in Oklahoma City, at City Carbonics, half way to Las Vegas.
I picked them up on the way back. This year we expanded our hydrotestatic test facility to service these larger cylinders ourselves.
Joerg Hess and I took our technician, Travis, to DEMA this year and then flew him back to Wakulla.
After test diving a new rebreather in Lake Meade, we continued west to spend Thanksgiving with my brother in Oregon. By Monday, we were at Innerspace Systems Corporation in Washington State, the folks who make the most successful rebreather in this country, the Megalodon.
We were visiting to become qualified to repair their newest rebreather, one half the size, cost and still as capable a rig as the Megalodon. Rebreathers have changed the way we dive the caves. This new platform will change the way we dive the ocean from Wakulla County.
Mechanical repairs to the Jetta held us in Oregon for a few extra days, forcing us to work outside in dreary weather. But rain in the Siuslaw Valley means mushrooms spring forth from their forests. During a brief break in the weather, I found a huge Boletus mushroom that tasted delicious!
Eating eggs from range-fed chickens and organic vegetables during our stay made up for the layover. My brother is a back-to-the-basics farmer now. He even heats his house with used vegetable oil.
A road trip is a time for imaginering. Days and miles on end between visits to manufacturer facilities, Dr. Hess and I brainstormed topics that will shape where Wakulla Diving will go in the coming years. We visited American Underwater Products (second largest dive manufacturer in the world) near San Francisco for a day of training on their new rebreather, the Prism2.
We stayed with Mike Menduno, legendary Tech diver, visionary and editor of Aquacore Magazine.
Then we drove over the Donavan Pass to Reno and eastbound to Salt Lake to visit our Russian colleague, Konstatine Kovalenko. There’s a chance he may join us, dramatically adding new dimensions to diving support in Wakulla.
In Boulder, Colo., we visited Spark Fun. Three newly graduated engineers from the local university loved to play with electronics, and shared their enthusiasm. They still do, but now employ 130 employees to help them do it. We toured their facility, and were amazed at how they pulled it off (lessons learned there).
We have returned with new plans, toys and renewed enthusiasm, to re-engage with the Madison County Police Dive Team for another two weeks of training. We introduced an inexpensive remotely operated vehicle (ROV), that they loved (almost as much as we do!).
It will be an exciting new year underwater in Wakulla County.

Back to list of columns

December 20, 2012

The Recovery

Grim faces met me as we continued our police diver training at my place in Beechwood. The pool had been covered a month earlier, before the large hickory overlooking the deep end had shed its leaves. The deck was six inches deep in fresh crispy fall residue, the distinction between pool and deck lost with the underbrush.
We pushed the deck leaves away and prepared to pull the bubble wrap off trying not to spill the overbearing pile of leaves into the pool’s water. They knew the water would be cold. They knew they would soon be in it and they were not optimistic of the task ahead. There was a crime scene within and they needed to record and recover evidence.
Joerg Hess quickly deployed Deep Tracker, a new and inexpensive Remotely Operated Vehicle or ROV for short, attached to the surface by way of an umbilical. This colorful little droid quickly scampered around the deep end of the pool and found the body in no time at all.
Robots like this are often seen as toys by police departments because they are controlled by game consoles, their color cameras displayed through glasses and just look like too much fun. The closest relative to the Deep Tracker costs in the upper $25,000 so the expense has been significant.
At just $4,000, or half the cost of outfitting another police diver, this creature caught our attention at DEMA, and we brought it home for a visit. Those that have visited the Center recently saw the granddaddy droid in the back that occupies 30 times the space, and requires a forklift to move.
One person carries the Deep Tracker and all its support features in a foot-cubed plastic box.
Now folks had to get in the water to verify what the droid so quickly found and solve the pending case. New dry suits were pulled over thermal protection against the 65 degree water. Soon a plan was set in place to record the crime scene the old fashioned way, by divers in situ (in the water at the site).
After some preliminary steps, the first team came back to report the body was facing east, appeared to be recently deceased and no other evidence could be found in the area. Everyone agreed to wait until the body was recovered before making positive ID.
Witness reports confirmed that damage in the vicinity of the pool had caused the residing dog great unrest, the garden was torn up and as recently as the night before, an intruder was seen lurking near the pool gate.
A body recovery shroud was deployed and with great care what was documented within the first few minutes of our arrival, and validated by divers, was removed to the shallow end and carefully lifted to the pool deck.
Everyone agreed, it was a rather large armadillo, remarkably preserved but very dead.
Gaining access to the pool deck through the rails that surround it, this armadillo did not distinguish between the solid deck and the collapsing pool cover because of the leaf overburden.
Once on the cover, there was little chance of recovery, its body slipping between the cover and the pool in what could best be described as leaf quicksand.
Everyone agreed it could have been a human, considering the circumstances.

Back to list of columns

December 27, 2012

Paintball!

With everyone on holiday, and the weather turning colder, we see an increase frequency of very small steel and aluminum cylinders showing up for recharging.
These cylinders were first developed decades ago driving the gas for soda making machines. Today they drive a thriving sport called paintball.
The cylinders are DOT-monitored just like our scuba cylinders, but apart from their size, differ most often in that they are filled with low pressure liquid Carbon Dioxide or CO2.
A year ago, folks at Air Gas begged me to set up a CO2 recharge station in Wakulla based upon the number of requests they got in Tallahassee. But there is so much more to this sport than filling CO2 cylinders.
Last year a group from FSU asked if they could use our cleared 5 acres to set up a playing field. Boy, did I get an education!
The sport involves shooting a plastic ball filled with different color paints from a special gun. Whether you shoot at targets or each other defines the protective clothing (and face shield) you wear.
The cooler weather makes donning the protective equipment more comfortable.
The FSU crowd brought inflatable targets and structures that filled the field. Teams were selected and scores were kept based upon the number of successful (kept by color) strikes that were made.
When the day was over, the field looked very colorful, but the first rain washed it all away. It appears the balls and the paint are quickly biodegradable.
After the next rain storm, I found no vestige of the games played!
The guns used are available from many sources locally and on the internet. They are driven by CO2 or high pressure air. These guns can be very sophisticated and expensive, but most are very affordable.
A local dad was in yesterday discussing his recent acquisition of paintball supplies and said his children were joining up with several other families to get into this sport.
He was a bit frustrated since many of the cylinders he had purchased were out of the DOT required hydrostatic testing dates and were cheaper to replace than retest. But we sorted it all out in the end. We currently only fill the drive gas cylinders.
We offered the backlot. In fact, we offer to work with folks if they would like to set up a course back there.
Here is a great opportunity to take unused space and make something fun out of it. Obviously we want to work with parents and their children to find a safe recreational activity this holiday season.
The winter ocean is rough and cold, the warm local springs are off limits to recreational diving, so why not expand the compressed-gas horizons.

Back to list of columns