Whew the hurricane is over. We spent the day cleaning up the damage left behind by Charley. Luckily with all the interns we were able to clean up speedily, we started with our house first. It looks like we were incredibly, incredibly fortunate as no damage was done to the house nor cars, although unfortunately the rest of the neighborhood was not quite as lucky. We found out later that Artie’s car got crushed by a 50 foot roof in his college parking lot. The damage was just horrible to look at. The damage was disheartening but Charley was only a class 2 when it hit Orlando, I hate to think of the damage if it had stayed a class 4.
Neighbors’ houses were smashed in by old oaks that had been uprooted lodged into their roofs, and for some people, their brand new cars. Trees tore up curbstones and pavement and were littered all around the neighborhood, along with broken power lines and other debris. But before we walked around to see all this and to see if anyone needed help, without missing a beat Terrence was out of the house and by 7:30 he had freshly mowed the lawn and was edging it to perfection with his edger. People have been driving by all morning with double-takes and open mouths. “Untouched!”
Around lunch time we went to Allison’s parents’ house to clean up their yard (unfortunately had to cut down a nice tree in their back yard), and then went to Amy’s house after that. On our way to Amy’s we hit a storm that developed into a mini tornado and knocked the steeple off a church!! At night the we had d inner at Renee’s because she was the only person that had power. My flight obviously got canceled so I am flying home on Monday.
After a natural disaster, it’s comforting to see a positive change in public demeanor. Strangers are more than willing to come together and help eachother out. From here on, the only thing we can do is look at the situation with a positive attitude. Meeting new people and sharing stories helped lighten up the atmosphere. We went to Cambrian Foundation headquarters to clean up what had been left by Charley. The back yard and parking lot were filled with tree branches and the front was covered with a carpet of Spanish moss, but ultimately the property was pretty lucky compared to the rest of the neighborhood.
Humongous, humongous oak trees had fallen all over Orlando, one had fallen across the street from the office and another had doubly smashed in the roof of a neighboring house. We spent the next few hours hack sawing limbs and dragging brush to the street, and then drove back to rest for a while. We had a goodbye party for the interns at Renee’s house once we all got back. I’m so sad that I’m leaving tomorrow; Allison, Terrence, Renee, Amy, Josh, Artie, Paul, James, Tim, and Lee have become like family to me in only a week! We have learned so much from eachother and taught one another a lot too.
I wish we could all just have a little bit more time together, but all fun things eventually have to come to an end. I’m happy knowing that these awesome memories and good times spent together will never fade away. Thank you to the Cambrian Foundation, and everyone else that I met, for teaching me more than I could have ever imagined and for making it such an awesome trip. : )
I woke up this morning and walked out of my room to hear the TV on in the living room…reporters are talking about a hurricane! Everyone in the neighborhood is running around today, preparing for Hurricane Charley; it is apparently HUGE and is coming straight for Orlando! As we did extra loads of laundry, Allison, Terrence, and I packed up loose things around the house and stocked up on food and water from the supermarket…the fact that it would be here in a few hours started to become more of a reality. By the time Charley had turned into a class four hurricane, the system was roaring with 145 mile per hour sustained winds (meaning that winds didn’t drop below 145 mph). According to footage on the news the western coast of southern Florida had been hit pretty hard, but we hoped that by the time it reached Orlando it would have dissipated a bit.
We packed up emergency bags, lashed down the house, taped up the windows, and got the dog leashes ready. It was pretty scary to think of the magnitude of the hurricane that loomed ahead, but I felt really safe with Terrence and Allison. Lee, James, Tim, and Paul came over after a storm band passed, as did Renee, all ready to spend the night or to move to shelter at Rollins College if necessary. Monitoring the storm on the radio, we stood on the sheltered front porch for a couple minutes observing the force of nature, in awe. At least 15 transformers blew up within a few miles of the house, the sky lighting up green and red with each loud bang. The winds picked up so we all headed inside.
The power went out and we were left listening to the storm’s progress from NOAA on the weather radio by candlelight. Charlie was getting closer and soon we had even lost NOAA’s reception. That moment was kind of like the part in a scary movie where everything seems to stop and the camera zooms in on the main character, who is frozen, knowing something is about to pop out within the next second. The winds were howling outside, but later everything became quiet within a matter of seconds, the eye of the storm seemed to pass directly over us. We peeked outside and the trees across the street that had been almost horizontal were standing upright again. Tonight I definitely learned about the power of nature.
Today we went to Wekiva and DeLeon Springs on bacteria collecting missions for Kennedy Space Center scientists Rima and Aaron. We started at Wekiva Springs, where Renee and Terrence collected samples of bacteria from the cave walls. The cave is so confining that they dove no-mount systems, meaning that they push their tanks through the cave rather than wearing them on their backs. We all watched Terrence and Renee descend and then we took samples of the spring water using the hydrolab and talked to Rima and Aaron about their work.
Rima is doing an experiment testing the behavior of different bacteria in climates within spacecrafts. An astronaut’s voyage to Mars would take three years to complete: one year to get there, one year on Mars collecting whatever data is needed while waiting for correct alignment of the planets for a safe return, and one year to return to earth. In order for this to work, scientists would have to create a sustainable environment, and that’s where the bacteria come in. Rima explores different forms of bacteria that could help the scientists maintain a safe environment for an extended period of time.
Once the samples came up from the caves, Rima and Aaron looked at the specimens and we were able to help them do some water testing on site. We tested samples of water from the surface and surrounding the bacteria inside the cave with three different chemical tests: Nitrate, Nitrite, and Ammonia. For each test, we broke two chemettes (three inch glass tubes that fill with water when the small tips are broken off, mixing the chemical and sample water inside the tube), and waited a minute for the solution to change color so we could read the results. The results showed low levels of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, which is good because it signifies low levels of pollution in the spring.
The next place we went to was DeLeon Spring where Terrence and Renee were joined by Artie on their dive. While submerged, we used the hydrolab again to determine the temperature, salinity, turbidity, pH, conductance, dissolved oxygen, and oxidation-reduction potential of the DeLeon water. Rima and Aaron were fascinated by the samples from both locations and we celebrated the trip’s success with a nice breakfast at the Spring’s restaurant, where we made our own pancakes with the griddles set into the center of the tables. It was definitely a fun trip!
Later in the afternoon, all the interns went to Renee’s house to take showers and relax with some movies and…Renee and I, being the only females thought it wicked funny how fascinated the guys’ were with her flowery spa and bath products.
While Tim, Lee, Paul, and James were out in the field collecting water samples for the Cambrian Foundation’s Central Florida Springs Project, Josh and I spent the day with Amy and her college professor, Dr. McShafferty, catching Dragonflies and Damselflies. Dr. McShafferty loves bugs. He wants to collect specimens from the Orlando area before returning up north, so Amy brought us to the Wekiva River and then through the Wekiwa Springs State Park today.
Armed with nets and canoes we paddled down the river swatting at just about every moving fly in sight, but I think Dr. McShafferty had the best luck getting them out of all of us; I’m just surprised that we didn’t fall out of the canoe! We must have been a funny sight to the canoes that were whipping by us on the river, especially on the way back when I was steering and had problems keeping us in the middle of the river, planting Josh face first into the mangroves way too many times. We saw all sorts of wildlife on our trip (some a little closer than expected!) from turtles basking on tree stumps to them swimming 30 feet below us on the river bottom. Although the hot sunny sky began to turn stormy, we went in search for more in the Wekiwa National park after catching flies on the Wekiva River. We even saw a sinkhole the size of my house, which was pretty cool, that had formed due to the karst topography of the area.
Back at Amy’s office Dr. McShafferty’s knowledge continued to astound us as he told us about the differences between families of flies. Our night ended with a trip to Rock Spring and then Wekiwa Springs to unfortunately lessen a population of armored catfish that had become too large for the park’s liking…Before we left, though, Artie showed me how to swim down near the entrance of a cave so that the flow from the entrance shot me up between two canyon-like walls and then onto the surface; the flow was fast and it was definitely cool. But not as cool as the black bears we saw on our ride home through the park!!
Big day today. We started out early with the cavern course on dry land. Terrence and Renee strung a cavern reel line from around and between trees, picnic tables, and other obstacles in the park so that we could simulate following a course underwater.
We began by learning how to use the line as a guide, wrapping thumb and pointer finger around it so that we create a small circular area for the line to pass through. The most crucial part of this, Terrence told us, is to KEEP A FIRM GRIP between your fingers; do not become separated from the line…if you do, you die. You do not necessarily die immediately in real life, but in a zero visibility situation in any overhead environment, you will get yourself into trouble if you can’t find your way back to the line that leads to the exit. We were challenged to get through the whole obstacle course, eyes closed, without “dying.” I don’t think we could count how many times we each died today!! But by the end our naive clasps turned into secure death grips so that we could make it through!
We also learned how to follow markers, navigate obstacles, perform buddy hand signals (when there is no visibility you have to slip your hand signal into your buddy’s hand so they can read it), how to find and untangle a buddy, how to properly cross over a line, and how to reel in a reel without jamming it. By the end of the day we were in the Rollins College pool utilizing the skills we learned on land for our test. Maskless or with our eyes closed, each of us had to complete an underwater course while Terrence and other students tangled the candidate into different messes, or tried to lead him or her off course. Two of the most important things to remember are to keep a firm grip and to move calmly and carefully even when tangled up so that you don’t stir up silt. It sure is tricky to unwrap yourself from a line that’s wrapped around your first stage, behind your back, through your legs and fin strap! I was absolutely amazed by some of the insane predicaments I watched the guys smoothly get out of underwater.
After the pool we finished up the nitrox class, and then Josh and I went to Amy’s house to help her and Terrence prepare vials for bacteria collecting with scientists on Thursday. Whew! It was a big day but really, really fun!!!
Tomorrow will start off with an early departure to the Rollins College pool for the cavern course, but today we got to sleep late! Josh and I spent the day at Amy’s house with her parents and baby Allie, and with Amy’s rescued tortoise! Amy is helping “Stitch” rehabilitate after she and Terrence found it with a cracked shell and punctured lung. I was trying not to laugh when she told me it was time to take it out for a walk. But hey, I guess everybody needs their exercise!
After Amy’s house and the speedy excursion with the tortoise, we all went to Terrence’s house to start the nitrox class. Boy did I learn a lot. Terrence’s teaching style is phenomenal, he is exceedingly through. He teaches above and beyond never failing to keep it real with scenarios he’s encountered in the past, which helps us as students to look at diving from a broader perspective. Ultimately, breathing nitrox IS 150% easier than learning it- thank you Sipperly. After a big night of learning I’m ready for bed! We’re getting up early tomorrow for more cavern class!
Today the interns spent the day taking a CPR class with Amy and Terrence. CPR is a prerequisite for any Cambrian cavern diving trips. We were split up into two teams: Team Typhoid (apparently my mono is as horrible as typhoid): Amy, Tim and I, and the other team who was sadly nameless because they were all in good health- Terrence, Artie, Josh. Renee Power, Director of Publications and Volunteers at the Cambrian Foundation who works at Orlando’s hospital, generously donated her time and expertise, she took the day off to instruct the class. In the middle of our class, James called us out because Paul had “fallen off the roof and was unconscious.” Josh and I stepped up to the scene and started rescue breathing on the victim after analyzing the situation.
The Cambrian Foundation never fails to “give it to you real.” We were nicely surprised with a mouth full of pizza in the victim’s mouth (which is a lot more pleasant than what we could have encountered in reality) showing us that emergencies are rarely textbook-perfect scenarios, you have to be prepared for any kind of situation. We learned more emergency procedures, including how to use a defribulator, deal with spinal injuries, and heart attacks. After the class we went back to the Terrence’s house to start day one of the cavern course. Lee, Tim, and I were the only interns in the course. We learned about the difference between cave and cavern (“cavern is cave diving without all the fun stuff,” or exploration, says Terrence), and that it’s crucially important not to ditch your weights because the only place to go is up, into the cavern ceiling. Before calling it a night, we rigged our BCs so that they were stream-line and “cavern safe” for our pool test on Tuesday.
I was greeted at the airport by Terrence Tysall, president and founder of the Cambrian Foundation and Artie the summer intern coordinator, with a “Kate Cambrian Foundation” sign. That was a surprise!! After drinking a Starbucks coffee with a shot of espresso I was finally awake enough to keep up with Terrence’s and Artie’s quick sarcasm. We drove back to Cambrian headquarters to meet five more college interns, James, Lee, Paul, Tim, and Josh, and Amy Giannotti who is the VP of Science and Research and Educational Director for the Foundation. After the introductions they took me to see my first Florida Spring.
Wekiva Spring water is beautiful and crystal clear. Terrence and Artie showed me three of their test sites there where they take daily water samples. Members of the Cambrian foundation were actually the first and only people to be granted government permission to dive there, on the basis that NASA is interested in their data and sample collection. The water has been tracked to filter through the ground for 27 years before upwelling into the springs, so what we put into the ground today is feared to severely harm the system in the future.
Once we got back to Terrence’s house, we organized and cleaned out the Cambrian Foundation dive locker. After that, Terrence taught us how to O2 clean, fill, and analyze a tank firsthand-not something that I could do in a dive shop, or even in the nitrox class! I used a metal broom-like whip on a shaft attached to a power drill to clean the rust buildup off the inside of the tank. After that, I turned the tank upside down, banged out the rust, and stuck a low pressure hose into the opening to blow out extra particles. The tank is now O2 cleaned! Artie and I screwed the valve on, and we affixed special Cambrian foundation special mix, nitrox stickers, or VIP stickers on. After that we filled the tank using the cascade filling method and with a little bit of air in the tank, we were able to analyze the contents of the tanks.
Amy later invited everyone to her house for a welcome party, where we had delicious brownies and fudge sauce, and watched Shrek. This has got to be the epitome of an awesome diving internship…life just can’t seem to get any better! [but wait, it does…]
This is the first free time that I’ve had in two days to write (or sleep!) so right now I’m in the airport terminal catching up on entries. The past two days have been filled with amazing wreck diving and lots of video editing. My only previous experience with this kind of stuff was with iMovie for a presentation junior year. iMovie is a lot simpler than the Stayer’s professional production equipment! They have Media100 which is used in conjunction with Photoshop7 and Adobe After Effects. I started using the camera gear and editing software the first full day I was here so luckily I got the hang of it before leaving.
Last entry I thought I had spent all day editing….nope, not even close! Wednesday I was up until 3:45 am and then on Thursday was up until 6:15 am finishing it up. Pat almost pulled an all-nighter with me, she was up to 4 am this morning! We were worried that we wouldn’t finish in time, but thankfully Jim got it onto VHS before my trip home; it is roughly 13 minutes and has a lot of footage from the wrecks!!
THE DIVES: We have been in major crunch-mode but the four two five hours we spent diving on both Wednesday and on Thursday were incredible. The water was about 66 degrees on the surface and we all used drysuits again because it gets a lot colder at the bottom. Wednesday we went out with Bill, another charter captain and friend of the Stayers, to dive the Mary Alice B. and the front half of the Regina.
The Mary Alice B. is a 65 foot steel tug-boat sitting perfectly upright in about 92 feet of water. She took on more water than the pumps could handle while being towed from Rockport to Detroit in 1975; the Stayers discovered her in 1992. Diving on this wreck was an amazing experience, I felt like I had gone back in time. Although many of Mary Alice’s surfaces were covered in zebra mussels (a non-native species that invaded the great lakes but, because they filter water, also made the water more clear), she looks perfectly preserved. Not only are the wood and ropes intact from sinking, the wheelhouse is picturesque and complete with the wooden wheel. It’s breathtaking. We swam around the tug and peered in the head, the galley (which had the remains of some plates), and the engine room. I wish I could have stayed down there forever! Our second dive that day was awesome as well.
The Regina is a 250 foot steel freighter lying upside down in 77 feet of water that is thought to have sunk in the “big storm of 1913” on Lake Huron, in which many large ships were consumed by the sea. She was found by a local man in 1986, her hull completely ripped open midship. As we descended onto the Regina, a massive looming shadow came into view. Getting closer I almost choked on my regulator when I saw the size of the prop. Jim had told me earlier to swim behind it for the camera once we got down there because it was “big” but I did not imagine it to be THAT enormous!! I felt a little spooked getting so close to it, the whole wreck had a very eerie feel. I followed Jim around the bottom of the wreck, he showed me the smokestack and one of the masts, and we peered underneath her hull to see the cargo area inside. The sand is littered with countless artifacts, from whistles, to bells, and anchors to glassware and the dozens of portholes just LAYING in the sand. It was shocking. I think I know a few people who wouldn’t be allowed near this wreck! Needless to say, Wednesday was a spectacular day of diving.
Thursday was just as interesting because we got to see the other half of the Regina, the bow. We logged a bottom time of 29 minutes and I reached 78 feet where the cargo dug into the sand. The bow is covered in a row of intact portholes and the bottom, similar to the stern, is filled with artifacts. I shined my light under the hull and saw gigantic pieces of wooden decking and a few ladders. Since the wreck is upside down, Jim took me up to the keel to see the huge rip that caused the freighter. The sheer size of it was intimidating. It had to have taken something really powerful to rip through that hunk of steel. That was our only dive on Thursday, but still a stunning one to end on. Jim let me use his video camera on each of the wrecks so I was able to get footage of them all, documenting my first time freshwater wreck diving.
My trip with the Stayers continued to open my eyes to new worlds of diving, and also of video production! The amount of effort Jim and Pat put into producing their videos or other people’s videos is impressive, and a full-time job in itself. A lot of time is put into making a little segment of video. I got the chance to learn about what goes on “behind-the-scenes” when making an underwater movie, during my stay with Jim and Pat. Not only does one have to be artistic and have a creative eye, he or she must have the skills on multiple levels, from camera control in currents and waves to color-correction and other editing abilities, in order to produce a pleasing finished product.
Wow. Today is the first day on the internship with heavy rain. Nearly every dive has been in fine weather with great water conditions (with exception to yesterday!), how much more lucky can I get? I guess when it rains in Michigan, it pours.
It has been pouring almost nonstop since last night’s thunderstorms. We didn’t get to go out today, which was not totally a bad thing as it was time well spent on the intern video. I am amazed by how long it takes to put a just few frames together, this project is going to take a long time!! Pat and I worked on the project ALL DAY. She had an appointment at 2:30 so we took a break from editing. During this time Jim took me to see the lightship Huron.
A lightship is a floating light house. It is quite practical because it can be used in multiple locations, as Huron was, and can be anchored in the parts of the Lake too deep to build an actual light house. Huron marked the entrance to the Lake Huron cut, and was the last light ship to be used on the Lakes. In the 70’s Huron was beached and later it became a museum. It’s a neat piece of history to explore. After the lightship, Jim bought some “sea foam,” air vacuumed malted candy covered in chocolate, on the way home…it’s delicious and only found on the shores of Lake Huron. Spent the rest of the night editing away!
Today is our first day of diving and my first time in freshwater! We dove from the Stayer’s boat, Wildkat, with Mike and Deb who are close friends of the Stayers. If I hadn’t known we were on the shores of Lake Huron, I would have thought we were looking out onto an ocean. I was excited to see the crystal-clear stern wake we left behind, and that we didn’t have salt spray stains all over our gear…different from San Diego and Massachusetts! When the time for the first dive came, Pat stayed behind with Deb while Jim, Mike, and I descended on the first wreck.
The wreck of the Sport was so cool because, having sunk in fresh water, the wood was intact-another sight you could never see in Massachusetts, or any salt water location! Sport was the first steel hulled tug on Lake Huron, it sank in a wintry gale in 1920, and lies on her starboard side in 49 feet of water. After giving me a tutorial on land, Jim let me try using his video camera underwater and luckily it turned out to be much easier to use than I thought! I had to compensate for its weight by adding air to my BC, but I was able to watch what I was filming on a small LCD inside the housing (which was a GATES housing, by the way!). To make the film pleasing to the eye, Jim told me that I should not use the zoom, move very slowly and steadily through the water, and let the motion in the frame be natural, not just panning.
The Sport had some amazing artifacts lying on and around it. Aside from the anchor, winch, and bell on board, I saw the wheel, many portholes and her enormous brass whistle!! Portholes and especially whistles are rare finds in the ocean and can be taken by divers if the wreck is not part of an underwater preserve. We circled the Sport a couple of times and on our way to the ascent line I saw Jim do a huge double take, the ascent line was gone! All that was left was the chain wrapped around the wreck. Jim and Mike tied a reel line around the wreck and we surfaced together. Luckily the boat was only about 100 yards away but the surf was huge and the current at the surface was substantial. The forecasted 2 foot seas turned out to be 4 to 5 footers; I wasn’t scared out of my drysuit because I had two experienced men on either side of me, but we seemed to be drifting pretty fast. Deb and Pat were able to keep an eye on us the whole time after the line broke and immediately tossed us a life-ring to pull us in. About five minutes later everyone was safely onboard. Needless to say we didn’t make a second dive today.
Back at the house we celebrated Deb’s birthday by relaxing in the heated pool followed by a sausage cook out. It was a good way to end what they called a “shaky” day. No one can predict what will happen on a dive, complications always occur. Today was an excellent learning experience for me. Before heading off to bed Jim and Pat taught me how to edit the footage we took by using Media100 to digitize, color-correct, and edit the film.
For the second portion of the “sleep-away” half of the internship, I will be staying with Jim and Pat Stayer, a couple interested in wreck diving and exploration. They are the founders of Out of the Blue Productions and charter dives on their boat, Wildkat. Jim and Pat have discovered eight shipwrecks in Lake Huron, and I will get the chance to dive on some wrecks in the Sanilac Shores Underwater Preserve. I met the Stayers this morning at a coffee shop in Connecticut, and we packed away my luggage and dive gear so that we could start the 12 hour drive to their home in Lexington, Michigan.
A couple of days ago the Stayers had told me that we might have the chance to stop in Canada on the way back, and we did! This is my first time visiting Canada, and we stopped at NIAGARA FALLS. It was so cool, they are magnificent. Getting up close to the ledge, you realize the power of water, seeing the huge rapids and the sheer volume of water passing right by you is amazing. The Stayers are going to teach me how to put together a short video, which will be documenting the summer, so Pat took a few video clips of my first time in Canada. With our break at the Falls, the 12 hour trip actually turned into a 15 hour trip; the traffic jam we sat in trying to cross the American border reminded me of all the traffic I was missing back in Boston during today’s Democratic National Convention.
We reached the Stayers’ home by 10:30 and after unpacking the truck we are all ready to sleep. Before I went to bed, though, I noticed beautiful and intricately drawn pictures of shipwrecks hanging in the hallway; Jim told me that these were some of the ones that we would be visiting and mentioned that Pat had drawn them all. In amazement I went to bed dreaming of what it would be like to dive on one of these vessels…
Steve wasn’t able to make the dives today, but he hired a guide who took us to dive two cool sites in “Wreck Alley” of the San Diego coast. We went out on the panga captained by Doug, Julie’s mate, to the first site the wreck of the Yukon. The Yukon is a 366 foot destroyer that was sunk four years ago to create an artificial reef for the wildlife, and to create a safe, penetrable wreck for divers. The water was pretty choppy and sitting on the bouncing raft with the tight neck seal around my neck didn’t make me feel to great, but I felt a lot better when I actually got into the water.
We descended down the line to the wreck, and once it came into sight (the visibility was about 20 feet), the looming shadow was enormous. The sunken vessel lists to the starboard side on the bottom, and is covered with many large white metridium (anemones). I saw a few fish on the tour that the guide led, but not too many. The Yukon is a fully intact wreck, which makes it a popular site to dive. We didn’t go inside, but explored the many surfaces onboard. It was amazing. We logged a bottom time of 36 minutes and had a maximum depth of 91 feet.
After the Yukon, we ate a little lunch and then rolled into the water around 2:30 to start our dive on the Ruby E., a coast guard boat that sank 12 years ago. The dive was BEAUTIFUL!!! The visibility was a little better on this one (around 25 feet) so we saw a ton of life-it was so cool. The wreck is covered with all sorts of anemones, including the little strawberry anemones we saw on the kelp bed dives. There were fish everywhere, which made it a very lively scene! We explored all around the wreck and dove down to about 77 feet. By far the best part of the dive was finding bunches of teeny little nudibranchs on the decks and other horizontal surfaces.
My favorite part was finding a huge brightly colored navanax, which resembles a nudibranch but is actually a type of sea hare that preys on nudibranchs! I thought it was a nudibranch, but Marty’s book told me otherwise : ). This little guy was black with thin bright yellow stripes covering its body. Two orange tipped ribbon-like protrusions ran along its back, and were spotted with bright blue patches. It was soooo cool. I sat there for a while just looking at it, and actually realized there were a whole bunch of nudibranchs right beneath me too! Our dive only lasted about 40 minutes because our guide was low on air, but it was by far my FAVORITE dive in San Diego!!
Back at the house we told Steve about our dives, and I was totally surprised when he gave me a mounted picture of a nudibranch—just like the one on Destiny! Unfortunately Pat and I didn’t get back to the house until around 10:30 pm because we had to spend the rest of the day waiting in the hospital (ugh!) because my glands were pretty swollen and I had come down with strep throat. Regardless, I still could not stop thinking about that awesome dive on the Ruby E.!
Amazing! That is one word of many that could describe this trip. Pat and I got up early to pack our gear into our suitcases because today we fly back home. I’ve had such a wonderful time staying in San Diego, I can’t believe that the week is already over. From the beautiful slide shows in his living room, to conversations at breakfast or in the car, Steve has shared wealth of knowledge with me. He has given me invaluable advice and has shared great pointers on how to improve on something everyday. Needless to say I was continually amazed by what he had in store for us each day, not to mention the star-studded list of people he introduced us to! Steve and Hiroko have been incredible hosts. I’ve had so much fun staying here, I’m going to miss them. They are headed off to Africa soon, followed by a trip to the Pacific. Thanks Steve and Hiro for an awesome week in San Diego! : )
Today was a very action packed day! We started the day off with a nice long breakfast and then hurried off to the DUI Factory, where we were cheerfully greeted by representative Faith Ortins. Diving Unlimited International (DUI) is a distinguished dry suit manufacturing, company famous for its top-of-the-line custom dry suit products and is considered the leader in the trade; DUI caters to everyone from the general public to the U.S. government. Faith took us on a tour of the factory, and described how a dry suit is made from start to finish. DUI prides themselves in the construction of their products; every dry suit and accessory is made by hand.
A suit starts out in the back with the cutters. There are two cutters who each cut their designated patterns. The man who cuts the patterns for the style suit that Pat wears has been cutting for around ten years, which ensures manufacturing consistency. DUI uses materials such as their own version of crushed neoprene, trilaminate, and cordura; the neoprene is cut uncrushed, so at the cutting table it looked thick and spongy. The next room we went to was a large warehouse-style room filled with tables and busy workers, this is where the suits are sewn together and the seams are sealed with rubber. A dry suit is a dry suit because of its seams. Water does not pass through neoprene on its own; wet suits are thus “wet” because water leaks through the suit’s seams. With snug latex wrist and neck seals and properly sealed seams, a dry suit has the ability to keep a person not only dry when diving, but also quite warm because of the ability to put layers of insulating material between the person and the suit. Therefore, dry suits are usually used in cold water environments, but also in situations where divers remain stationary for long periods of time, such as with Dr. Hanlon’s squid divers in Australia.
Our next stop was outside where the products are pressure tested in long horizontal pressure chambers, and then we went into an adjacent building where employees were also sealing up seems and putting together the suits. The zipper is another important component of the suit. This, too, must be impermeable to water, and is one of the most important pieces of the suit to maintain because a dry suit filled with water is bad news. Every suit is carefully inspected for leaks, they want to catch even the tiniest ones which could have formed from a popped bubble within the rubber sealant. The suit is zippered and plugged up at each of the opening then inflated with air. The testers submerge the ballooned suits in a trough of water and look carefully for rising bubbles. They also go over the seams with a soapy spray bottle if further inspection is needed. I can not believe how trained their eyes are; they pointed out a leak but I could not see the bubbles in the soapy water even though they said they were there, and that the suit had to be sent back.
At the end of the tour, Faith showed us DUI’s dry bag that soldiers in the military use to transport their machine guns underwater. Needless to say, seeing firsthand the dedication and the precision with which each dry suit is constructed is quite impressive. After DUI we stopped by John Jackson’s house.
John Jackson is an incredible shell collector, author and founder of Odyssey Publishing Company. His house is like a museusm, its amazing. Displayed on shelf after shelf are different kinds of shells that he has acuired. Being particularly fascinated by cowries, a large portion of the lower level is dedicated to drawers full of these shells (and pictures he has taken of the live animal). He has collected them from all over the world and is particularly fascinated by the rare ones, of which he has collected many. He has been working for the past seven years on a beautiful new book, Australia’s Spectacular Cowries, which was just published this year. I was floored when he gave me a copy! Not only by that, he gave me a four other shell and wild life identification books, and even a beautifully shined up cowry!! I was completely taken aback and can’t wait to dive into them. We spent the next few hours with John Jackson eating at a fun restaurant that overlooks a pond, then headed home to catch up on some rest. We got back to the house and Steve showed me a new pair of Scubapro split fins that Sergio had left for me…oh my god! Wow. What a day.
Today Hiro, Pat, and I spent the day at Sea World. It was neat, we saw the Shamu show, the seal show, and the dolphin show, along with various other exhibits. The shark exhibit was cool because we were moved through a tunnel under the shark exhibit on a people-mover and felt like we were underwater and surrounded by them. I also really liked the manatee rescue exhibit-I had NO idea how big they are! After Sea World we visited the Scripps Aquarium, which had beautiful exhibits of local and foreign waters. We ended the day with shopping for a while in La Jolla, visiting Wyland’s studio gallery, and then seeing dozens of seals resting on the beach downtown. The seals were sunning themselves in an area they call the “war zone” because it has been debated whether or not the city should let the seals stay in the area.
The best part of today, by far, was eating dinner with Marty Snyderman. If you have seen underwater photographs before, there is a good chance you have seen one of Marty’s! Marty Snyderman is a renowned underwater photographer, cinematographer, writer, and producer with his works published by National Geographic, Skin Diver, Time, Newsweek, and the New England Aquarium . Hiro taught Pat and I how to make spring rolls for dinner. We used rice paper, bean noodles, basil, mint, lettuce, cucumbers and parsley. Each one was rolled up with either shrimp or chicken in the center, and then cut in half. Hiro put out two dunking sauces, her recipe was delicious.
Dinner with Marty was awesome. I was sitting between Steve and Marty and just listening to boatloads of advice for college, for majoring in science, for scuba diving, and jobs from two of the greatest men in the business. It was great. Marty asked me a lot of questions about my interests, besides scuba diving and marine science and that made a strong impression on me, and said a lot about his character. After each question he would give his point of view on how to approach, say, pursuing marine biology in college. He told a great story of how he was mentored by Stan Waterman and was goggling when at dinner with him. He said he probably wouldn’t have gotten his name right if he had been asked—boy do I know what that feels like!!
He also told us about some of his adventures in his career. Marty was the first man to dive with a great white shark without a cage. When asked if he would do it again he said, “I’d be right behind you!” He teaches an online photography course, and offered to let me take his classes!! I was trying to keep my eyes in my head I was so excited, and then just after that he offered to give his two latest books Marine Life of the Caribbean, and California Marine Life to me. I couldn’t stop saying thank you but honestly I was so dumbstruck and speechless that I couldn’t think of any other words. I had a blast tonight, I couldn’t have asked for a more informational and laughter-filled night. Marty is a very cool guy and totally down to earth; he’s wicked funny and definitely not afraid to crack a joke!
Today Steve gave us very a great tour of the San Diego area, including a nice park area that overlooked yesterday’s Point Loma dive site. Basically, I would never study if I went to school here-there are way too many beautiful places to visit (above and below the water)!
Today’s breakfast conversation was phenomenal. If anything, I’ve learned the most stories or little useful tidbits of information here from just sitting around the table at mealtime. Some of today’s topics were the popular new book Shadow Divers, wreck diving and finding the remains of human bones inside a sneaker, and dolphin-free tuna catching utilizing the cinching method that Steve is involved in. Steve said that there is a possibility that we might be able to dive the Yukon during our stay, a 366 foot destroyer in about a hundred feet of water that was sunk purposely for diver penetration in 2000. Even if we don’t make it to the Yukon, I am looking forward to going to Sea World tomorrow!
Dave left for Hawaii today, but Pat and I get to stay until Thursday. Near the end of the day, Hiro went to a Thai cooking class, and Steve, Sergio, Pat, and I toured around the “City District” of San Diego. Most of the buildings were quite modern as they had been built within the last 35 years. Not only was the architecture really neat, but the city’s streets were so clean and un-crowded compared to Boston! Ironically, we ended up eating in a Thai restaurant and went back to the house to hear about Hiro’s Thai cooking class!
Diving in the kelp bed. Photo courtesy of Mark Conlin Photography Dinner with Howard and Michele Hall!!!
We just got back from eating dinner with Howard and Michele Hall!!!! They are incredibly knowledgeable people and so nice to talk to. I was so shy in front of them at first it was embarrassing. It is pretty funny when they start talking about the importance of interpersonal communication to you, when you are at a total loss of words in front of them. We heard all sorts of crazy stories from their filming excursions throughout the world; the night was full of laughter and great advice. It was interesting to find out that all the work they do, according to Howard, is done scuba diving with the cameras, not in submersibles. They use regular, high-definition, IMAX, and IMAX 3-D cameras. IMAX cameras are huge and can weigh up to 500 lbs while 3-D cameras are 1500 lbs and need two men to operate them!
We were invited to watch a few movie clips at their house that they put together using high-def and G4 cameras with an interchangeable faceplate. Versatility, they said, is key. Many people today are using this cheaper, but most compatible technology. It is easy to invest $70,000 in a system that can become obsolete in a year, so it is crucial to make sure your equipment is versatile. They also had stacks and stacks of hard drives for storage of their media; we saw two beautiful clips of their film. Before this exciting night, however, we actually spent the day diving off of Steve’s beautiful new dive yacht Destiny.
Today’s dives were really cool, we went diving in the Pacific kelp beds. We went to Point Loma with Hiro, Sergio (president of UWATEC), Mark Conlin, Dave and Pat, and Captains Julie and Doug. The visibility is about the same as it is on the East coast, except the wildlife is a lot bigger and the water is a little bit warmer in Southern California. Our first dive was to about 80-90 feet on Nitrox. It was my first nitrox dive ever so I was checking my computer every two seconds! I kept showing my computer to Mark because it was telling me I had low airtime minutes left but according to him it was conservative and he told me not to worry, they were laughing at me when we got to the surface.
The kelp environment was darker than I had expected because the kelp blocked most of the light from the surface. We saw dark spiny urchins, many schools of fish in the shallows, and little coral and anemone carpets. I held a large, strong white crab, and we saw lots of my favorite type of gastropod–nudibranchs!! They were big yellowish white critters with yellow dots and were about two and a half inches long. I even spotted my own nudibranch hidden in the coral; it was reddish with a frilly back, just like in the pictures! The dive was good but being my first time in kelp beds, on nitrox and having been at 90 feet I was not as relaxed as I could have been and got tired at the end of the dive and couldn’t wait to jump onto the boat. Before getting out, Mark took a few pictures for internship publicity.
The second dive was a photo shoot with Mark. The last dive I felt over weighted so we dropped seven pounds off of the weight belt. I swam around about 15 feet below the surface in the kelp beds for some artistic shots. There was an immense amount of life in this zone. I saw many top-feeding surface fish, a few tiny bright orange ones, and then a couple of schools of a variety of bait fish, including smelt. About four or five pictures in, my weight belt dropped. Mark was very instructional on the surface, while all I could think about was how lucky I was that I was not 80 feet down when it dropped…that would not have ended so well. I was also lucky that Dave dove down to search for the weights and came up with them. The photo shoot ended about a roll later when the current started to pick up, and once we were all on the boat we watched a few seals dart under the hull.
On our way back we passed Naval docks and had a nice view of a Navy aircraft carrier and a submarine that were hidden behind floating pontoons, from the top deck of Steve’s boat.
We are driving back on the California freeway from the site where Steve Drogin’s submarine is being constructed. California has a mountainous topography speckled with lots of bushes and trees. Being from Massachusetts I thought it was funny to see that there are stop lights and multiple lanes on the entrance ramps for “politely merging” onto the freeway-that’s a phrase you don’t hear too often in Boston! They help lessen the traffic at rush hour.
The drive was about two hours up to the shop, most of it spent telling Mark Conlin about the internship, and them him talking to me about his work and how he got started in the industry. Mark Conlin is a professional underwater photographer whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian, and Discover, has worked on many IMAX films, including ones for Howard Hall Productions. His story inspired me because he started out as a collector and surveyor for his school, after graduating from UCSB with a degree in marine biology. During his photographic surveying trips he would save about six exposures for himself to experiment with exposure, framing, etc. to learn more about the camera. He said that even though I will not be working my dream job when I first graduate from college, I have the potential to succeed by starting at one of these jobs and taking advantage of all opportunities that come my way. As a deckhand, he met Steve Drogin as well as Howard and Michele Hall and ended up working for them later on! Mark is an interesting guy, he knows a whole lot about the ocean and marine life but also has played a part in the construction of Steve’s submarine.
So…the SUBMARINE FACTORY was a sight to see!! You would never guess upon driving into the driveway of a small business park that hidden behind a few doors was Steve’s sub. It’s nine feet wide by maybe eighteen feet long; it’s the largest privately owned submarine and boy is it large!! It is not ready to go in the water yet but they predict it is two weeks away from submergence testing. We saw the motherboard “brains” of the sub, the three-inch plexi-glass dome that encloses the sub’s pilot and two passengers and it’s controls, the special aluminum edged seal and the enormous O-ring that seals the dome shut, and other external parts of the sub such as the propellers, pontoons, and the place where a camera will be mounted on the front.
Schmulich, the captain of Steve’s submarine, gave us an excellent tour of the sub and described how many of the parts function. He says he is still in the process of learning the controls of the sub, inside and out, and is very excited to be onboard this project. Seeing the submarine first-hand is awesome, Steve is building some really cool stuff! Next week there will be a photo shoot for the sub that sounds really neat. I can’t wait to see what Steve discovers on his adventures in it.
We hurried back to Steve’s house to run a few errands and then stopped at Gates Underwater Housings. Gates is a manufacturer renowned for their top-of-the-line underwater video housings, used by professionals all over the world. Gates is now owned by John Ellerbrock and he gave us a tour of the factory, boy was it amazing. What makes Gates unique is in the construction of their housings. Gates housings are cut out of a solid block of bulletproof machined aluminum; the precision of the high pressure water-cutter and the lack of seams greatly decrease the probability of leakages, making Gates so successful. Gates is currently making a customized video housing for Howard Hall. Mr. Ellerbrock is starting to experiment with prototype camera housings but right now he deals mainly with underwater video. Being behind the scenes in a premier manufacturing company was amazing, seeing the aluminum chips fly by us in the stripping machine I couldn’t help but wonder where that future camera might be in the future.
This morning I met Dave and Pat at the airport because we’re going to SAN DIEGO!! I can’t wait to see the beautiful, warm, area…and especially can’t wait to get into the ocean! Dave, Pat, and I are going to be staying with Steve Drogin in his house in La Jolla. Steve is an incredible photographer who has traveled all over the world on photographic adventures-and I mean all over! Steve has been to over one hundred countries, including Antarctica. I met Steve at the clinic this year (he was a speaker) and his animated personality got me psyched for the trip, especially when he showed me a picture of the submarine that he is in the process of building! After about six hours of being in the air, we landed in California. Steve welcomed us to San Diego by hosting a dinner cruise onboard his new dive yacht, Destiny. Destiny is beautifully decorated with Steve’s photographs, walking through the boat is like walking through a gallery-its awesome!! Steve and his wife Hiro have just returned from a trip to Mexico on the yacht and told us some cool stories. The dinner cruise was the perfect way to end a long day of traveling. We had delicious food cooked by Julie, Destiny’s captain, and watched the sun set over San Diego.
For the last day of the Advanced class, Dave and Pat came along to dive with us on the Wreck of the Chester Poling, and then for the shallower navigation skills dive at Bass Rocks. The Poling is a tanker that sunk in 1977 and the bottom of its stern sits in 102 feet of water off the coast of Gloucester. There are many different openings on the vessel, from portholes to doors to windows, and thought these openings we were able to see other divers exploring the inside of the wreck. Many frilled anemones covered the surfaces of the Poling, and we also saw a sea raven sitting on the deck as we rounded the vessel for our ascent. Bass Rocks was yet another type of environment that I hadn’t seen before. Bass Rocks has larger rocks that are covered in weed, but I noticed that it also has an abundance of skates. It’s pretty neat that so many of these sites are less than a mile from each other and yet each one looks drastically different. This was a nice dive to end the advanced class on. I can’t wait to go diving off these New England shores again-they’re beautiful!
For the second day of my Advanced class, Ethan and I rode out to Halfway Rock to work on some deep diving skills, and then some more night diving skills at Magnolia Rocks. The dive at Halfway Rock was amazing-so awesome that the view is almost indescribable. Halfway rock may look like a smallish rocky island from the surface, but underwater it is completely different. Gigantic slabs of grayish rock seem to be stacked on top of each other like a triangular house of playing cards. It extends from the surface all the way down to the bottom at ninety feet. You feel completely dwarfed as you swim around. The rocks are covered in black sea urchins, and we saw a few lobsters and little fish. It was really cool to be swimming in an environment so large, the visibility was excellent and the whole place was surrounded by very light minty green colored water. It’s beautiful.
The dive was awesome, until we hit the safety stop at thirty feet and I couldn’t stay down! Even though we dumped all the air out of my drysuit and BC, Ethan still had to hold onto me so that I didn’t shoot up to the surface. Another lesson learned- forgotten ankle weights makes a HUGE difference, especially with the buoyancy change in Aluminum 80s! I sure didn’t forget to put them on when we made the next dive at Magnolia Rocks!
The environment at Magnolia Rocks is beautiful too, but very different from Halfway Rock. This dive was a lot shallower (30-40 feet), the rocks were smaller and covered in long, flowing seaweed. There were lots of hiding spots for lobsters, which I was looking for, and then came face to face with a large pout- I was wicked surprised to see THAT!! It’s a dark gray fish with a large head and huge lips, whose body curls up into an eel-like tail. Neat creature. I would say that today’s class was definitely an exciting one!
Fred Dion is one heck of an entrepreneur; he keeps a tight store, staffed by only a few people but certainly very successful. At his shop, Underwater Photo-Tech, not only did he explain to me how cameras and strobes work underwater and how they differ from land, he gave me invaluable pointers on how to survive in the business/marketing/retail world, and told me how he got started in photography.
Fred and Dave are the owners and founders of Underwater Photo-Tech, an underwater photography and repair store in Derry, New Hampshire. www.uwphototech.com. I started off the day with a tour of the store and pointers on what has made his store successful, such as small, knowledgeable staff that willing to do anything for a customer (like manufacture custom parts on site). I spent the next few hours with MJ, watching her do Nikonos camera repair. Their collection of flooded Nikonos’ is huge! MJ explained many of the steps she takes to disassemble and solder the camera back together. It was very cool to see what the guts of the camera look like-especially when saturated with salt…ouch! After her repair, MJ puts the camera through a series of tests- light meter testing, and pressure chamber testing, for example- before she hands them over to Kelly to be checked out.
In addition to camera repair, I also got to check out some of Fred’s pictures and slide shows from his trips to Indonesia-I have never seen pictures of such gorgeous and exotic life!! He also taught me how to edit the pictures using different software on the computer. I learned invaluable information with Fred and the gang at Underwater Photo-Tech, it was an awesome day!
A picture of comb jellies bioluminescence in the dark; similar to what Ethan and I saw on our night dive. Source: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~crebb/
Today was the first day of my Advanced Class with Ethan Gordon. Although diving skill is not gauged by how many cards or certifications one has, many dive charters require divers to be Advanced certified to go on boat dives. It is the next certification level up from Open Water, and requires the diver to complete a series of at least four specialty courses. My four specialty courses are deep diving, limited visibility/night diving, navigation, and boat diving.
My class with Ethan today covered navigation and limited vis skills. He had me navigate different courses, and then distracted me for a while, and I was supposed to keep bearings and get us back to shore. My favorite part of tonight’s class was the night dive- It was awesome! We saw many lobsters, at least three dogfish, and a whole bunch of different kinds of fish. When we turned off the lights, it was surprising to see how much natural light the moon provides, and also really cool to see the phosphorescence. I think that the coolest thing that I saw that night was a long-finned squid. I’ve never seen one before and it was amazing. They glide along so gracefully in the water, and escape behind a nice cloud of ink when spooked.
A group of graduate students from University of Rhode Island invented a neat new device, a forward mapping sonar system named Farsounder, and have hired Captain Lori for the past several months to test their invention in the harbor. I went out with the three inventors, Matt, Matt, and Evan, along with Captain Lori and Captain Mike. The Farsounder system is very interesting and has many practical applications; it has even sparked the interest of the US government, which has purchased a model. While many sonar systems map what is directly below the boat, the Farsounder currently has the ability to map objects at a range of 1000 feet in front of the bow, and the team is looking to go to 1400 feet in the near future. Unlike other sonar systems, Farsounder uses quiet sound waves that do not hurt or confuse mammals underwater.
Mounted on the bow of the Takakjian’s vessel Quest, Farsounder was able to chart the locations of bouys, docks, and approaching vessels on a computer screen. Large shipping cartons submerged just below the surface, uncharted shipwrecks, and even whales are extremely dangerous obstacles to vessels and can cause an unexpected sinking. Collecting data every two seconds, the Farsounder software can create a three dimensional image of the sea floor to surface ahead, helping a vessel locate and safely steer around such obstacles. We took the Quest to four different locations to test out the system. At each site we panned the area back and forth and back and forth in a cross-hatch pattern so that Matt, Matt, and Evan could eventually stitch together a full three dimensional map of each site.
First we went to Butler Flats right outside of the harbor; I got to stear for a while and quickly learned that you need to compensate for drift caused by the wind and current. The next site, the Great Ledge, was another area where they wanted to stitch together a topographical bottom map, but we had to leave before getting very far because it was too shallow and the rocks became dangerous. We panned back and forth at the last two sites as well, Church Rock and Decatur Rock, and then finally Palmer Island Light before calling it a day.
Today Kim and I drove up to Scituate, Mass to dive with Tom Mulloy- and his dog Bailey. Before we got the boat ready to go, Tom showed us his artifact collection and the stained glass projects that he makes. Both were very impressive. He has a great boat to dive from because the stern is very spacious. The first dive site was Mino Light. On our way out we stopped to say hi to Tom’s friend, a lobsterman who had just pulled and set his pots. The lobstering right now isn’t as good as it has been; he only had two in that whole catch!
Diving at Mino Light was awesome. The historic lighthouse sits on top of huge rocks that form mini canyons just large enough to swim through- which was awesome!. The rock walls are covered in all different types and colors of seaweed and are filled with fish and hiding spots for lobsters. The site is not too deep so it was a nice long dive-and oh yeah, I caught my first New England lobster! I grabbed it quickly but then dropped it when it started to bring its claws back towards me-Tom was laughing, but I got it again and brought it over to him. The lobster was too little to do anything with, but I was wicked happy that I caught my first one!!
Kim piloted us into the harbor where we docked quickly to see the memorial to the lightkeepers of the first Mino Light, then we were off to the next dive site: The wreck of the Forrest Queen. The Forrest Queen was a wooden hulled ship that sank in 1852, and has been worn down by the salty, current-filled New England water. Because the wreck was in 13 feet of water Kim was able to snorkel down to see it, and we were both surprised to see big looming chunks of conglomerate on the bottom rather than something in the shape of a boat . Tom taught me how to use a crowbar and hammer, and we found lots of stuff in the conglomerate-mostly all wine bottles, but I found a corset lacing snap, and Tom found some hand cut nails. It was awesome to think all this stuff was from the 1800s. After that, he let me try out his underwater scooter. Wicked cool, but I got totally lost underwater and ended up surfacing far far away.
Later, Tom took us to the local sailing museum. He’s found lots of treasures on the Forrest Queen, from intact Tabasco bottles, all sorts of hardware made by blacksmiths, and best of all a 73 lb silver ingot! Holy cow was that thing massive. He puts his treasures on display at the museum so local kids and citizens can learn about some of their coastal history. It’s all very neat.
Today my sister Kim and I were picked up bright and early (something I’ve noticed is really common in the diving world!) by Dave and Pat to drive down and meet Eric and Lori Takakjian at their dock in Falmouth. Kim finally got to see firsthand some of the cool stuff I’ve been doing this summer! We all went out on their research vessel, Quest, to go wreck diving off of Martha’s Vineyard. Captain Eric and Captain Lori run a business called Quest Marine Services, where they charter their vessel for oceanographic services. www.questmarineservices.com The Takakjians have found numerous shipwrecks off the New England coast, three of which we visited today. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get into the water at any of the three sites because it was too choppy, but it was a nice day spent out on the water. I was pretty lucky that we didn’t get in the water because I only had 1500 pounds in my tank just after we left the dock….oh boy did I learn my lesson!! CHECK YOUR TANK PRESSURE RELIGIOUSLY!! I was petrified of telling the people on the boat, hahaha. Check, check, recheck…even if the shop filled it a couple of days before….boy was that embarrassing, but it taught me.
Kim caught my expression on film when I realized that I had less than half a tank of air left before the dive…
Can you believe that all the food that the GOT animals eat is restaurant quality? All the way down to the cooked shrimp! These past two days I’ve spent most of the time feeding. Myrtle and the needlefish are the main ones that I’ve been feeding-the needlefish love the shrimp! Friday I worked with volunteers Jeff, Narda, Don and John. I love interning at the aquarium because every day I’ve met at least four new people. All the volunteers that I’ve met come from really different backgrounds ranging from freelance artists to computer programmers to college students. Everyone has given me great advice on what to do after college, and how to stay in contact with the marine world. A great idea that Tara suggested was that I should take advantage of travelling and studying abroad in college; if I want to keep traveling than working on live-aboards in Australia is definitely the way to go (that’s what she did). It’s comforting to know that I don’t necessarily have to be a marine biologist to work with aquatic life.
Saturday was my last day at the aquarium and I met Barry, Neal, and Dan. I got to do two dives on the last day, both of them were with Dan. Dan took me on a great tour of the GOT; we went through all the passageways and holes above and below the reef, and he let me pat the giant green moray. Underwater it has the softest, slimiest skin- it felt like I could almost poke a hole in its side if I pushed to hard, it was so malleable. A very different feeling compared to the tough, sandpaper-like skin of the nurse shark that Holly let me touch the first day.
On the second dive Dan taught me how to use a lift bag and we each used one to transport buckets of sand from one area of the GOT to the main tray. It was really cool, but hard to swim with so I guess I didn’t put enough air in the bag. At the end of the day Dan took me on a tour of the galleries behind the scenes. It’s a room with holding tanks for the galleries, and many aquariums with one side displayed to the public. If you look down you can see the people looking in- but they don’t see you! The aquarium was a fun place to spend five days. I learned so much about the animals, and what it takes behind the scenes to keep the aquarium going (a lot!). Now I want to volunteer at an aquarium when I’m away at college!
Today started off with food prep again, but not for the GOT…today I prepared food for the Penguins! There are three types of penguins in the exhibit: Rock Hoppers, Africans, and Little Blues. All three species eat smelt, a small arctic fish. Some smelt are injected with water to keep particular penguins hydrated. After the food was prepared, we pulled on wetsuits and got into the nippy water (it is 20 degrees colder than the GOT!). I followed Paul, the exhibit head, around on the morning feeding and the thing he warned me about most was that penguins are unpredictable animals.
We had to keep at least a 12” distance between any penguin and our heads and walk through the exhibit with fingers in palms to avoid a painful bite. My wetsuit had a small loop on the back that was a toy for one penguin, Benguela or Benny for short, who nipped, twisted and yanked on it consistently during the feeding. Every penguin has a color-coded beaded tag on one of its wings for identification. Females are tagged on the right and males on the left. At feeding time, a record of every fish that each penguin eats is kept, along with notes on behaviors and if the penguin is in a cave or sitting on eggs.
I got to see two eggs in the African exhibit, and a behind the scenes look at a Little Blue nest hidden inside one of the rock islands. Penguins are unique birds in that they keep the same mate for their entire lifetime. After the feeding, each penguin ate around 10 fish, we got out the scrub brushes, hoses and virkon (a cleaning agent neutralized by water) and scrubbed away at the rock islands to clean them of guano- a.k.a. penguin poop. After this first morning session, the staff records the weight of and how many fish were eaten, the temperature and humidity in the exhibit, and any other notes about how the feeding went.
I was lucky today because I was invited to do the 1:15 GOT dive between penguin feedings. After that it was time for the 2:30 feeding where I shadowed Logan, a college student at Wellesley and Paul in the exhibit. She taught me how to feed the Rock Hoppers! You have to present the fish head first to the penguin and then guide it into the beak. The penguin will then swallow it whole from there. With some older penguins, you need to push the fish to the back of its throat so it can swallow it easier. My biggest accomplishment was being able to successfully feed Penguino, a tough girl penguin who totally shreds up the fish with her beak then spits it out, thirteen fish! After the feeding, recording, and clean-up in the penguin locker room (no rock scrubbing on the second feeding), the day was done.
The second day at the aquarium was just as fun as the first, if not better. I started off the day with food prep again, and then was invited to help out with the Myrtle Project. Myrtle is the GOT’s oldest inhabitant; she weighs about 650 pounds and is estimated to be between 65 and 70 years old.
The Myrtle Project is an experiment researching the effects of different sound frequencies on turtles, in hopes to create a sounding mechanism that will help deter turtles from large ships. Kathy Streeter conducts the experiment and she let me be in charge of the sound and light. With the help of mammal volunteers Allegra and Melissa, we ran a series of tests on Myrtle using operant conditioning, which involves training Myrtle to do something through positive reinforcement. Two types of trials are conducted: light trial or light and sound trial. When Myrtle hears a beep from one of two speakers underwater, she must touch the sounding speaker. When she is successful, she returns to the platform and gets a treat (fish or squid).
After the Myrtle project at feeding time I got to feed the barracudas who eat whole fish, and finish up some office work like de-rust a scale, laundry, copy intern manuals, and clean-up clean-up clean-up! The 1:15 dive was really fun today, I felt more comfortable using my own BC and less weight, and had a few fish hang out really close to me while I scrubbed the coral. Another neat part of the day was watching an purple mouthed moray eel be removed from the tank and anesthetized so that the medical services team could determine why it had been acting sluggish.
I just got back from an awesome first day of interning at the New England Aquarium. The day started off with a quick tour of the aquarium and the places I would be working “behind the scenes” with Holly, followed by a briefing of volunteer rules and regs. The first thing I got to do today was help Trish, a Dive Volunteer, clean buckets and prep food for the feedings. The animals in the Giant Ocean Tank (GOT) get fed four times a day. The tank divers dive five times a day, one at each feeding and then an additional cleaning dive. I really like food prep, different animals get different types of fish…for example needlefish get cut up sardines while the big rays like chunks of smelt and capelin, and the sharks eat squid stuffed with fish and vitamins if they are hungry. Today I got to stand on the feeding platform and feed Myrtle, the giant green turtle, and the needlefish.
I also dove in the GOT! Holly gave me a nice tour of the tank and its inhabitants and let me pat a nurse shark, it was really cool. I was apparently intruding on one black fish’s space as I was cleaning the reef because it kept nipping at my wetsuit. I learned a lot about many different animals today, from the ones in the GOT, to a couple of fish in smaller aquariums in a laboratory that Holly showed to me. I can’t wait for tomorrow!
Owning and running a dive shop sure is a lot of work! For the past three days I’ve been at Bobby Boyle’s dive shop, Undersea Divers, in Beverly, MA. I can’t believe how much Bobby does and still manages to keep sane. The day starts with checking the oil level in the compressor, then off to unpacking boxes! I spent a bunch of time unpacking new shipments (a lot of which came in wrong and had to be corrected), pricing items, restocking the floor then storing the rest. I put together a bunch of tanks and boots, and organized rental wetsuits and gear for his classes. I really liked watching Bobby do the VIPs (Visual tank inspection required once a year) and learning about hydros (tanks have to be hydrostatically tested every 5 years), different wetsuits, and fitting masks and BCs. Its amazing how many people come in to get their tank filled, say they dive regularly, but haven’t had a VIP in years.
On my last day, I was pleasantly surprised by a phone call from Patrick Scalli! He wanted to check in to see how my summer was going so far (its awesome J ) and was about to stop by but unfortunately couldn’t make it. Bobby is a popular guy; he had a constant stream of customers and friends stopping by. On Saturday, New England underwater photographer Andy Martinez dropped by the store, it was really neat to meet him and he gave me a few good pointers about college too! Working at Undersea Divers I’ve definitely gained a new respect for businessmen, dive shop owners in particular!
Today I learned how to freedive and spearfish with David Sipperly in Rhode Island. The only equipment we needed to freedive was a mask, snorkel, wetsuit, fins, and a weight belt. Freediving is diving while holding your breath, instead of breathing air from tanks. It was wicked fun!! Dave, his friend Eli, and I took Dave’s boat over to Block Island and anchored off the shore to look for some fish. Dave is a great instructor and fun to watch. He was a past All-American freediver, so he stays underwater forever and makes freediving and spear fishing look like nothing.
We went to three different sites to look for fish, all in about 15 feet of water, and also looked for a small wreck to dive but couldn’t find it. I thought the second site was the best-there were stripers everywhere!! Nine or ten huge fish would swim by or circle us at a time. I speared my first striped bass here. I spotted four or five Stripers while snorkeling on the surface, dove down and lay between the rocks on the bottom, one swam perfectly in front of me and I speared it through its side! By the end of the trip we had a cooler full of stripers and tautog. After a successful day of fishing and diving, we went back, I learned how to fillet the fish, then Dave grilled them up for a delicious dinner!
Dives always seem to end too soon, so what better way to extend your bottom time than to breathe Nitrox? Today I took David Sipperly’s Nitrox class with Lisa O’Malley, and Chris and Mary Sharrigan. A Nitrox mixture has a higher concentration of oxygen in it than normal air does. Normal air is roughly 79% nitrogen 21% oxygen. The two most common nitrox mixes are NOAA Nitrox I (68% nitrogen, 32% oxygen) and NOAA Nitrox II (64% nitrogen, 36% oxygen). Divers like to breathe nitrox because the lower concentration of nitrogen allows divers to extend their bottom time, decrease the surface time interval between dives, ascend faster after an easy dive, and is said to lessen post-dive fatigue and nitrogen narcosis. Dave Sipperly gave us a great thorough class (especially practicing with those tables!), and Dave Morton showed up later to demonstrate analyzing and filling nitrox tanks. I can’t wait to use it!
Bo·naire (bô-nâr’), n. an island of the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean Sea off the northern coast of Venezuela populated by friendly inhabitants, exotic marine life, crazy divers and drivers, where you can eat conch and lizard, and practically see forever underwater. Or in other words..the most awesome underwater world I’ve ever been in!
Bonaire is a diver’s paradise, both underwater and on land. We stayed at Captain Don’s Habitat, whose title of “diving freedom” fits perfectly beucase, unlike other dive resorts on the island, divers are allowed to be in the water 24 hours a day. My first day in Bonaire I dove on reefs overflowing with all different kinds of tropical fish, gigantic sponges, coral, snails, worms and other invertebrates. At dinner we would see at least a half dozen turquoise dive light spots dancing around in the water at night – like a personal light show.
Picking a favorite activity or dive wouldn’t do justice to the rest because I was exposed to so many new types of activities and environments. On one dive, we dove 97 feet to the wreck of the Hilma Hooker, a drug-packed vessel that was mysteriously sunk and deserted just before the arrival of the Coast Guard. When we went on a night dive, I found out how fast starfish can actually move as I watched the basket stars scurry away from the beam of the dive light. We swam with wild dolphins, saw a frogfish, GIANT green eel, a turtle, and followed around many trunkfish and cowfish (who swim awkwardly but now are my favorite!).
Above water we went cave snorkeling, explored dry caves that had fossilized coral on the ceiling, saw flamingoes, pink salt flats, and slave huts, tried all different kinds of food (including cabrito-donkey, lizzard, and conch), and ended the week at the Queen’s Day celebration. I got to ride on the back of Jack Chalk’s Harley across the island in an escort parade up to Rincon, Bonaire’s historic town and the site of the huge three-day celebration of Queen’s Day. It was certainly a busy week. In Bonaire I learned about more things than I could have possibly imagined, but most important of all…it was wicked fun!
Coffee in hand, I walked into the Copley Plaza Hotel ready for the exciting weekend to begin, although I had no idea how incredible it would turn out to be…
The festivities start in Boston on Friday morning at a seminar called Career Opportunities in Marine Science (COMS) coordiated by Sea Rover George Buckley. Held the Friday before every annual Clinic, COMS is a program for local high school students to learn about advancements in oceanography. The program is filled with movies, speeches, and enthusiastic presentations by speakers that often provide students with the opportunity to get involved. Here I was introduced to Sea Rovers and non-Rovers that I would be working with over the summer, including Terrence Tysall and Amy Giannotti of the Cambrian Foundation in Florida.
At the Pre-Clinic Reception that night, I met a boatload of smart, fun, and obviously hardworking individuals celebrating their passion for the water. The night was filled with fun introductions and conversations. I was astounded when I was asked to ring the bells, a tradition the Sea Rovers uphold to remember deceased members. Seeing names names like Jacques Yves Cousteau etched on the bells, I was incredibly honored. As if the night was not already exciting enough, the next thing hear is that in a few weeks I would be diving in beautiful warm waters of Bonaire!! It was hard to get some shut-eye that night, but needless to say I feel asleep dreaming of good visibility.
Saturday and Sunday were chock-a-block full of seminars, behind-the-scenes looks at how the Clinic works, and meeting more and more caring people, including corporate sponsors, more Sea Rovers, and the Scalli Family. Imagine being handed a backpack to carry around, later to find a new ScubaPro regulator inside! My head was certainly spinning throughout the whole weekend. Of course, my friends were jealous when I told them that I had dinner seated between Dr. Bob Ballard and Philippe Cousteau, while facing Dr. Eugenie Clark and her daughter, Stan Waterman, Joe MacInnis, and Pat Morton. Wicked cool. The big moment came when I accepted the internship from Patrick Scalli on the stage of John Hancock Hall, through unexpected tears feeling completely embarrassed when he mentioned more than my name! But embarrassment was well worth being able to be named the first Scalli intern and meeting a family so dedicated, welcoming, and generous in every way.