Rapture of the Deep

Dive #1: [Actual: #714]

Location: Yukon, Wreck Alley

Date: 8-25-07

Time: 12:25

Dive Length: 35 mins

Surface Temp: 61 F

Bottom Temp: 56 F

Surface Conditions: quite choppy; technically ‘white caps’

Viz at Bottom: 30 ft, dude!

Mix: 30%

Max Depth: 102 ft. [brought shovel]

Critters Seen: Painted Greenlings, Black Perch, Senoritas, Blacksmith,
CA Sea Cucumbers, Macrocystis, Sand Bass, Striped Perch,
Metridia……

Comments:

After a brief fiasco involving the forgetting of major pieces of
equipment by two people who should know better [and who shall remain
anonymous], Mike and Barbara finally got back to the dock with said
equipment and picked up Peter and Simon, our two favorite Brits and
motored out under surprisingly choppy seas to the Yukon, where the
Lois Ann was just finishing up.

We let the two Brits jump in first, while we suited up.

By the time they surfaced, we were ready to jump in with the
Volkswagen…er, video cam, so Barb tied it off to the side of the
boat, along with her BC and put everything on in the water.

This turned out to be a mistake: the surface chop and current were
formidable. The surface chop, propelled by 15 kt winds kept the waves
breaking over our heads, while the surface current kept trying to
sweep us away to the Coronados Islands.

Finally, with the VW clipped to her BC, Barb and fought our way to the
anchor line and quickly dropped down–only to find zero current and 30
ft. viz awaiting us on the Yukon–yes! The Gods were with us!

Barb needed to get some stock video footage of Milt’s Tilt, so we
calmly finned our way towards the Radio Tower, just kicking back and
enjoying the gorgeous conditions.

Large schools of Blacksmith and Senoritas flitted back and forth
across out field of vision as silvery rays of sunlight beamed down
from above and the snow white Medridia growing on the Rear Guns and
deck glowed back at us.

Knowing that Barb was heading for Milt’s Tilt above me at around 80
ft., I ducked down to the sand and zoomed under the Tilt, just as she
was gliding down from above, creating a perfect shot of me ascending
up from below, with the fields of Metridia in front.

From here I went over to the Pirate Flag on the Radio Tower and held
it out for all to see, Skull and Crossbones prominently displayed near
the mast.

As you may have surmised by now, the most dangerous place on the Yukon
is between Mikey and the camera.

From here, glided back over to the Mortar Bay and played around here
for a while, where I did my usual ducking down into the Lobster Trap
hole, this time, amazingly, I was able to avoid disturbing the CA Sea
Cucumbers anchored to the wall and avoid the usual Sea Cucumber
Avalanche.

When I popped up through the little cubby hole at the South end of
the Mortar Bay, Barb was gesturing up toward the Mini-Macrocystis
Forest on the Stern/Starboard side, so we floated up to that.

The Kelp Forest has become quite thick and we could see Black Surf
Perch chasing each other through the fronds in some sort of ‘get out
of here, this is my territory’ Perch behavior.

Little Painted Greenlings poked their noses mischievously out from
under the kelp as it waved gently in the current and the Surf Perch
zoomed past us, nibbling at each other’s tails.

Barb gestured over to the Big Propeller, so we glided over and down to
it, and admired the fields of huge Metridia glowing like neon in the
early morning sunlight, as she took more video here.

Finally, it was time to begin heading up, and we reluctantly took our
leave and began our slow ascent to the surface.

Dive #2 [Actual: #715]

Location: NOSC Tower

Time: 3:20 pm

Dive Length: 40 mins

Max Depth: 60 ft.

Viz at Depth: 15–20 ft.

Mix: 30%

Critters Seen: Umm….where do I begin?

Giant Spined Starfish, Bat Stars, Sand Bass, Senoritas, Blacksmith,
male and female Sheephead, Cabezons, Strawberry Anemones, Medridia,
Black Surfperch, Rubberlipped Surfperch, Pile Surfperch, Opal Eyes,
Rock Wrasse……ISIFS [I'm Sure I'm Forgetting Something]

The second dive at the tower was by far the best, in terms of
abundance of marine life.

But, not before I accidentally knocked Simon’s Scuba Pro 90 tank off
the boat into the water with my elbow while reaching for something,
while he was on his dive, causing it to race to the bottom and give me
and Barb a ‘project’ to work on before beginning our dive.

Luckily, although we had prepared a strap and a lift bag to send it
back to the surface, jumping in, we found it was right under the boat
at 60 ft., so I just opted to grab it and send it to the surface with
my self, rather than the lift bag, thereby shaving minutes off an
otherwise complicated ‘salvage operation,’ with reels and straps and
lines and lift bags, the type operation Barbara seems to love, for
some god-unknown reason, but which I detest–LOL!

We then grabbed the VW, tied off on a line next to the boat and
proceeded on with our dive.

Descending down through the girders of the NOSC Tower, we were treated
to a veritable fairyland of color and variety.

The girders of the Tower were aglow with gorgeous pink and red
Strawberry anemones, interspersed with bright white Metridia, with
huge schools of Surf Perch, Blacksmith, Senoritas and the odd female
Sheephead-in-transition-to-male.

We floated gently down through the schools of fish towards the bottom,
where we immediately spotted a beautiful beige and black camouflaged
Cabezon, sunning himself out in the open under a overhead bar on the
bottom.

Barb glided up to his front and I brought up the rear, while she aimed
the lens at him from about 6 inches away, the camera busily whirring
away.

I had perfect Zen moment just hovering about 3 ft. above the two of
them, buoyancy in neutral, breathing slowed down to bare minimum to
sustain life, quietly watching fish interact with human. A hush
descended over the scene as I just floated there, never wanting to
leave.

Finally, the Cabezon decided he had had enough of fame and fortune and
he scooted off, but not before Barb got some perfect closeup footage
of him–yes!

We spent the next 40 mins just amazed at the variety of colorful
marine life on the Tower.

The bottom was littered with large, purple Giant Spined Starfish, Bat
Stars and Sea Urchins.

Macrocystis grew from the topmost girders at around 30 ft., providing
shelter for Painted Greenlings and Barred Sand Bass, as well as large,
colorful, male Rock Wrasse, as well as tropically-colored Opal Eyes,
which darted in and out of the fronds.

We just had a blast slowly ascending and descending through the
girders of the Tower, totally surrounded by all this marine life.

At one point, at about 50 ft., I came across a small group of large
Rubberlipped Surfperch, about 12 inches long, facing each other like
some comical Surf Perch ‘circular firing squad.’

As I glided to them, the simply parted to let me join them, where they
continued staring at each other, and now, me…..about 6 inches from
my mask.

We all just hovered there, at 50 ft., calmly gazing at each
other–another Perfect Zen Moment. They were completely tame and
unafraid and just welcomed me into their little group.

Finally, I broke away, a little chagrined in the realization that I
had allowed myself to be ‘stared down’ by a bunch of frickin’ Surf
Perch and went my along my merry way, just shaking my head.

All too soon, it was time to ascend, so I signaled to Barb that I was
going up and she indicated that she just have another 5 mins of
filming and would be right behind me.

We surfaced, smiling and happy that, despite some rather intimidating
surface chop in the beginning, we actually had one of the best days of
diving we’ve had in a long time, in terms of marine life and
visibility.

Another day in Paradise, folks!

AAUS stands for the American Academy of Underwater Sciences, a board which sets science diving protocols and ‘standards’ for the scientific diving community, both in academia and in government.

Although not mandatory [Reef Check and Reef.org are not AAUS Certified] any organization which aspires to teach or practice ‘scientific diving,’ would do well to adhere to their standards.

They are not a diving agency which issues certification cards.

However, in the scientific diving and academic communities, AAUS is the ‘gold standard’ for science diving standards and protocols and recognition and membership is highly prized.

The problem is, there is no clear ‘path’ to getting it for non-scientists and non-marine biologists–like us.

The most common way is to be ‘sponsored’ by an AAUS certified organization, such as Coast Keeper or volunteer as an Aquarium Diver with a local aquarium, which some of our friends have done successfully.

For the last 4 years, Barbara and I have been trying to get it by doing research dives with the [former] marine biologist for Coast Keeper, Colleen Wisniewski, now Program Director for Reef Check. But, nothing ever seemed to come of it.

Recently, however, thanks to Colleen, we finally got the Diving Safety Officer [DSO] for Coast Keeper to come out and observe us actually doing science dives with Reef Check and then, give us a Final Written Exam to take home, which we were just informed by him that we ‘did quite well on.’

The final hurdle!

Whew…. What a long journey it’s been!

Even now, though, what’s next is unclear.

Not being a diving certification agency, they don’t issue certification cards, so we don’t know if we’re going to get a card or not. I understand cards are available for those who request them.

So, what does being AAUS ‘certified/recognized’ mean?

It simply means that you can do science or research dives with any other AAUS recognized agency, organization or program.

And the list of AAUS science diving organizations and universities is impressive; you know, ‘little-known’ research institutes like: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution….Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Amateurs like that!

Now: is anyone from Woods Hole or Scripps Institution likely to invite us to dive with them in the near future?

Probably not.

Nonetheless, it’s nice to finally get the certification and recognition from the organization which establishes the ‘gold standard’ for scientific diving protocols nationwide.

We’ll let you know if they give out cards! LOL!

Oh, and speaking of C-Cards……. for the ‘You Must Be Joking’ Dept:

Yesterday, I got a NAUI C-Card in the mail from the Reef Check Program.

[Scroll down to See my Reef Check Story below for that fiasco...]

My first thought was that it was a clerical error and I should, in all good conscience, send it back.

But, then I realized: it was just recognition for having completed the program and keep me from becoming completely depressed–LOL!

I still have to train more with Colleen before I can actually submit data.

Life is really weird, sometimes, you know?

Sorry, just couldn’t resist bragging for her, because she’s too modest to do so herself: my dive buddy and partner, Barbara just sold her first underwater video footage to a company which makes virtual dive simulators for SCUBA instructors.

This involves using actual underwater dive video footage to create a software program which simulates a dive for use in computers and SCUBA instruction.

So, for example, if you have never dived Casino Point in Catalina, viewing the ‘Casino Point Dive Simulator’ would give you a virtual dive tour of the area on a computer, so you have an idea of what it looks like before doing the actual dive.

This company purchased her video footage of a dive we did on the Canadian warship Yukon, off of Mission Beach recently, to use in creating a ‘Yukon Dive Simulation’ for instructors preparing students for making the dive.

So, selling her first underwater video footage a mere month after getting the new Sony High Definition video camera is not a bad start. Many underwater videographers labor for years before making a professional sale.

Actually, it is not her first sale: her first sale was to a German TV station for some Halibut footage last year; they pay $20 per second for video footage, but as you may imagine, only purchase short 20-30 second segments and it was not High Def footage. But, it was used in a broadcast.

Hopefully, this will help build up a professional underwater video ‘resume,’ so to speak, as well as a degree of name recognition, which will lead to further opportunities.

[And, no: don't worry: she hasn't quit her day job yet!] LOL!]