After my rebreather course, I made my way up to Monterey to see the great folks at Light & Motion and to attend the BLUE Ocean Film Festival as their guest.  Light & Motion has been an innovator in the field of underwater videography with their non-penetrating infrared camera controls and professional-grade, compact housings for consumer-level cameras which I’ve been using since long before this year.  Recently, however, they’ve been focusing on revolutionizing the way we light our underwater scenes with their new line of Sola underwater lights.  What’s so different about these video lights is that they’re completely self-contained.  That means no battery pods and no pesky cables – just a compact, high-output light that’s durable and easy to use.  The first generation of these lights, the Sola 600’s, were more geared towards photographers as focus lights, with their red-light option which would allow a camera to focus without scaring away the critters.  With a 600 lumen output, they were best equipped for macro videography.  In addition to the original focus lights, the new line of Sola’s will offer a 1200 lumen video light and eventually a 4000 lumen video light; double the output of the current Sunray 2000X’s, which are still tethered to battery pods!  And to top it all off, they’re going to be introducing a line of Sola dive lights for divers interested in getting the most out of their night dives.  I’ve got a pair of Sola 600’s that I’ll be testing out, so stay tuned for more updates!

Once we took a break from our skills on dive number three to explore the depths and get a sense of how efficient rebreathers truly are, I instantly began to appreciate our bubble-free zone.  At about one hundred feet we ran into a torpedo ray.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have some pretty extraordinary animal encounters, but this was entirely unique.  The scene was absolutely surreal.  The ray was hovering three feet about the slope, completely motionless, suspended in the water column as though frozen in time.  Seven divers were kneeling on the bottom watching this electrified torpedo ray which, as Jeff aptly described, looked like an Imperial Destroyer (I guess he was a Star Wars nerd as well).  With a casual flick of its tail, the ray would propel itself gently towards one of these foreign creatures, investigating briefly before heading on to the next one.  I resisted the urge to reach out and touch it, wary of the powerful electric shock these rays can deliver.  For several minutes we stuck around, not a single bubble escaping our units, no sounds or vibrations to make our new friend nervous.  And when it was apparently bored with us, it turned around and made its way slowly towards the depths, in an unstressed, care-free manner that was entirely new to me.

Why do the bubbles make such a difference, you ask?  Well, creatures underwater are very different from the animals we encounter every day on land.  Sound and vibrations are extremely amplified underwater, and most aquatic animals live lives that are very fine-tuned to vibrations and disturbances in the water column.  Fish, for example, have what’s called a lateral line, a line of highly-sensitive nerves along each side of their body that can detect even the slightest movement (vibrations) in the water around them.  These lateral lines are what allow fish to evade predators and respond to quick movements happening around them (schooling fish, for example).  When a scuba diver swims along a reef, exhaling a flurry of bubbles every few seconds, it’s essentially like a marching band parading through your living room: you wouldn’t stick around either, would you?  Some fish are intrigued by bubbles and even attracted to divers as a result (the more musically inclined fish, perhaps), but the bottom line is that natural behavior is significantly altered when bubbles are thrown into the mix.  In our bubble-free zone, we were left to observe the oceanic critters going about their daily business as though we weren’t even there, which often occurred in very close proximity to our faces.  When we came upon a couple of open-circuit divers, the kelp forest seemed to clear out in front of my eyes.

On our third day of open-water diving, I was feeling comfortable enough in the rebreather unit to grab my camera and take advantage of this new silent tool.  We were able to get incredibly close (I’m talking 4-inches-close) to four-foot-long juvenile Black Sea Bass, capturing some incredible shots and becoming more and more addicted to the next generation of diving (see photos).

There are a few limitations to rebreather diving.  The first being gas supply, which can last more than 8 hours (not a huge constraint).  Then there are the no-decompression limits which, with a constant partial pressure of oxygen and underwater surface-intervals, aren’t a major limitation either.  Typically, the constraining factor is the lifetime of the carbon scrubber, which varies from 4 to 6 hours depending on the type of scrubber you’re using, the water temperature and the work load.  But in the cold waters off of Catalina, thermal protection was what threatened to get me out of the water fastest.  For the first couple of days I was wearing a 7mm wetsuit while getting comfortable with the rebreather’s buoyancy characteristics.  After an hour below the thermocline at 95 feet, I was more than ready to get out.  Once I was comfortable, though, I appreciatively threw on my DUI drysuit and went for a test run with the new heated undergarments.

In 50-degree water, under my drysuit I was wearing a 1mm-thick Stretchliner, gloves and socks (all electrically-heated, mind you) and wearing the same amount of weight as I had been in my wetsuit.  The difference was that I had increased mobility, and could have stayed well past the hour long dive times.  On the boat I was staying nice and cool while my fellow dry-dive buddies were sweltering in their thick undergarments.  When it was time to get in, all I needed to do was flick a switch and Ta-Da, I could instantly feel the heat radiating into my torso, hands and feet.  I was good to go for as long as Jeff was willing to keep us under, my fingers nice and toasty and ready to operate my video camera.  They always say that you really notice the benefits of a drysuit when you’re suiting up for your second dive.  That is, of course, unless you leave your drysuit on between dives in summertime in California, in which case what you’re noticing is the dehydration and heatstroke creeping in as you burn to death in an air-tight container with an inch of fleece around you.  I, on the other hand, had the best of both worlds!  My only bad experience with the heated undergarments was sending them back to DUI for their Demo Day tour up the west coast.

We head out to Catalina Island tomorrow for the open water dives required for the certification, where I’ll be testing out the DUI heated undergarments and working on my skills on a rebreather!

My time in Dry Tortugas seemed to fly by. My days consisted of diving, eating, doing chores, and sleeping. To start it off, I stayed up until 4:00 am packing my bags in California then I drove to the airport for a long flight to Florida. Upon arrival, I discovered my bags had been lost in transit so I found my hotel in Key West and hoped they would arrive soon. Then, I walked to the grocery store to pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables for the Submerged Resources Center (SRC) crew because they had already been out on the island for a month and were running low on perishables. Since the island is a tiny, remote historical park with no stores, all supplies have to be brought in.

Luckily, my bags were sent on a later flight and delivered to my hotel in the middle of the night, just in time for me to leave at 6:00 am to catch a ferry to the island.  After checking in to the Yankee Freedom Ferry to Dry Tortugas I boarded with Melissa Memory, an archaeologist from Everglades National Park.  She was coming out to dive with the SRC team for the week as well. It was nice to have a travel companion on the 2 hour trip and to learn about the resources from her. Outside on the deck, I was surprised by the warm, unfamiliar breeze; the clear, shallow, turquoise waters; flying fish; and an occasional sea turtle.

When the island came into view, it was much smaller than I expected, but I was looking forward to diving, exploring, and living there for a week. Walls were built around the perimeter of the island comprising Fort Jefferson, complete with a moat and drawbridge. I thought a moat in the middle of the ocean was amusing, but it added an extra, medieval feeling of security. 

Dry Tortugas is located 70 miles west of the coast of Florida, along the edge of the main shipping channel between the Gulf of Mexico, the western Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. This location brought a large number of vessels through the surrounding waters. Early on, Spanish explorers and merchants used the shipping channel to travel along the Gulf Coast.

The United States constructed Fort Jefferson in the mid 19^th century as a military fortress, strategically placed in the Tortugas to protect the valuable shipping channel. Since the islands and reefs are low and flat, they were a navigational hazard to ships passing through the 75 mile wide straits between the gulf and the ocean. These high risk reefs create a natural “ship trap” and have been the site of hundreds of shipwrecks.

After stepping onto the island, I immediately dropped off my bags and grabbed my dive gear to set out on the boat with the crew. Driving out to the site I got acquainted with the SRC team, Dave Conlin, Tara Van Niekerk, Paul O’Dell, Bert Ho, and Art Ireland while learning about their research methods.

From 1993 to 1995, the SRC conducted remote sensing at Dry Tortugas, towing a magnetometer behind a boat over the reef within the park boundary. A magnetometer measures the intensity and direction of a magnetic field. Since most ships have a significant amount of iron on them, they show magnetic variations, or anomalies, in the data collected. Our job was to dive anomaly locations to inspect the ocean floor for shipwrecks or other significant archaeological finds.

We used GPS to locate anomalies. Once we were within 30 ft of the location, we threw a buoy marker overboard that was tethered to a dive weight with about 100 feet of line. Then, we descended down the line with a reel and performed a circle search pattern looking for anything interesting on the sea floor.

Often times, nothing was found because the object causing the anomaly was buried in sand or the device picked up natural magnetic changes in the earth’s field.  However, that’s why it is necessary to jump in the water and check out magnetic anomaly because they don’t always reveal the remains of a shipwreck or cultural materials.

There are over 40 known shipwrecks in the park, and while I was there we discovered 3 new anchors. Before I arrived, the SRC found 2 shipwrecks, 3 cannons, and anchors. In addition to diving and snorkeling to look at anomalies, we dove on known shipwrecks to monitor their condition and see if they were still intact and undisturbed. On one occasion, we went back to document the cannons and anchors they recently found. The team dove with tape measures and waterproof paper to sketch out the artifacts as I snorkeled around to see if there were any more items around.

I made three to six dives a day, and on each dive, before we hit the water, the chief of the Submerged Recourses Center, Dave Conlin, would call out, “Let’s dive us up a shipwreck!”

Diving in Florida was impressive. First of all, I’ve never been diving in only a bathing suit with no wet or dry suit, and I must say-it was so much more convenient. Having learned to dive wearing a two piece 7 millimeter suit with a hood, gloves, booties, and still shivering, it was refreshing to feel the water on my skin and still not be cold.  Also, it made rinsing gear and toting it around a breeze. I still love California diving, but there is something nice about warm water diving. Plus, when you come up from a dive the sun continues to keep you warm. I put on plenty of sunscreen but still ended up with a deep tan line in the shape of an “X” on my back from my swimsuit.

After a day of diving I also got the chance to walk on Loggerhead Island and climb up the brick tower lighthouse which was built in 1858 to warn incoming vessels of the dangerous reefs.  It was sweltering hot inside, but the view made it worth it

Also, on a dive, we encountered a lionfish, one of the most venomous fish, among some metal. I was slightly confused when I saw Dave chasing it until I remembered that a friend of mine who went to the Bahamas told me the lionfish are invasive and they are working on eradicating them.

The fish was removed, but we saw three more during a dive the next day. Dave captured another one, but only after it used him for shelter. After his close brush with the lionfish, we decided we needed the proper equipment to remove them safely and effectively.

The next day, someone reported a lionfish near the dock. Law Enforcement Ranger, Chris Ziegler, and I dove with scuba gear and nets to catch the fish and found not just one, but two. Unfortunately the holes in our nets were too big to capture the fish so the next day divers went back to that spot and removed the lionfish successfully.

Three enormous Goliath Groupers live under the dock at Dry Tortugas. I can honestly say I have never seen a fish so massive, they looked like cows underwater! After the unsuccessful lionfish hunt, we swam around under the pier to see if we could spot the grouper but they weren’t there. The water was so thick with tiny fish, I could hardly see! Also, the tarpon there were unafraid and I could swim right alongside them.

During the last day we packed gear, cleaned the living quarters, and Bert and I scrubbed the bottom of the boat. After that, I had some time to explore the fort and visitor’s center before I hopped on the boat back to Key West.

I would like to thank Dave Conlin, Art Ireland, Bert Ho, Tara Van Niekerk, Paul O’Dell, Melissa Memory, Chris Zeigler, Shauna Cotrell, and the Yankee Freedom Ferry crew for an amazing and unforgettable experience at Dry Tortugas National Park!

This week I had the pleasure of working at Diving Unlimited International to see first-hand just how much care goes into each and every drysuit they produce.  DUI is a sponsor of the scholarship, so I’m incredibly lucky to get to use what’s considered the gold-standard in drysuits this year.  What surprised me so much when I arrived at the DUI factory in San Diego was that it’s much closer to a small business than the huge company image that it has.  I had envisioned precision machinery cranking out dozens of suits an hour with a couple of employees drinking coffee and pushing buttons behind the scenes.  In fact, the DUI factory is filled with dedicated craftsmen (and –women), many of whom have been working there for over twenty years.  Each and every suit is assembled, stitched, and glued by hand, whether it’s a custom order or simply a stock size that will be shipped out to a dealer.  Hours of work go into each and every suit, reducing the total number of drysuits that can be produced per day, but ensuring that they’re of the highest quality and meet the highest standards possible (as Faith Ortins, Sales Manager and my host for the week explained, there aren’t really any set standards for equipment testing in the dive industry, but after 500 hours in a cement mixer one can reasonably assume that a product is durable).

DUI has been a leader in the dive equipment industry, from developing the first hot-water suits to their numerous innovations and revolutionary products that make modern drysuit diving what it is today.  While I was in town, I was privileged to be helping out with what will no doubt become another innovation in diving dry.  One thing that plagues drysuit divers is bulky undergarments.  If you’ve ever been diving in freezing-cold waters, you know exactly what I mean.  Sure, it’s better than diving in a wetsuit, but there’s something about climbing into that inch-thick, fleece teddy-bear suit which really makes you question how much you want to go diving today.  The reduced mobility is one thing, but the thirty pounds of weight stuffed into weight pockets and mounted on tank straps in every possible way to avoid destroying my lower back with a weight belt that should have a safety warning is what really kills me.  But there’s just no way around it.  We can’t go diving in 40-degree water with a dinky little undergarment, right?  Wrong!  This is where DUI comes in.

For years, divers have dreamed of heated drysuits.  They’ve taken chemical hand & foot warmers and shoved them by the handful into their undergarments and their socks in an attempt to stop their extremities from freezing solid.  Well, now the problem is solved.  DUI has developed electric-heated undergarments which will drastically reduce the number and thickness of layers required under your drysuit on cold dives.  A heated Stretchliner, essentially a millimeter of fleece, will get the same job done as a jumpsuit that’s almost an inch thick.  For a week I’ve been working with the engineers and product development specialists at DUI cranking out prototypes and production models for testing, and I have to say: this is going to be big.  Imagine diving into 50 degree water with your drysuit on and wearing less weight than your buddy with a 7mm wetsuit!  The heated suit will keep your core warm while allowing you the flexibility and range of motion to dive freely.  Heading to Antarctica?  No need to worry about frostbite: the heated gloves and socks will keep your fingers and toes toasty, allowing you to take photos right up to the end of your hour-long dive.

The demo models are still going through some finishing touches to make sure they’re streamlined and easy to use, but check out a DUI Demo Day near you and you might just be lucky enough to try out a prototype heated suit (if you’re a DUI owner, of course)!  I’ve got one of the demo models (which I made!) with me now and I’ll be testing it out at Catalina Island during my rebreather certification’s open water dives – I’ll let you know how it turns out next week.

During my two week stay I dove with the Kaloko-Honokohau resource management team to do coral reef surveys as well as work on other projects. Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park was established in 1978 and preserves the coastal sections of two ahupu’a or traditional land divisions of Kaloko and Honokohau. This area of land extends from the upper slopes of the volcano down to the coast and out into the ocean.  It includes the Kaloko fishpond, which was constructed with lava rock and is an excellent example of traditional aquaculture as fish were raised in the pond to sustain the population. Most of our dive sites were located in Honokohau Bay or just outside of Kaloko fishpond.

For my first day of work Sallie Beavers, Chief of Natural and Cultural Resources, gave me a safety briefing and covered all of the emergency plans, rules, and fundamentals of the diving program and boat operations in the park. Later, we went out to the boat to make sure everything was prepared for diving and that the proper essentials and emergency supplies were onboard to go out on the water.

The next day I renamed and organized photos taken during previous surveys to get a better feel for the reef surrounding the park and the project itself.

The day after that, we took the boat out to collect water quality samples from various sites around the outside of the fishpond, harbor, and bay. To collect samples, we submerged a tube with spring loaded doors into the water. The doors would shut when a weight was dropped down the string attached to the device. This traps the water in the tube at the desired depth. We surveyed 16 different sites and collected samples from both surface water and deeper water. While we collected samples, a water quality analyzer was lowered into the water to collect information about ocean conditions such as salinity, turbidity, and temperature. Also, Lindsey and I managed to squeeze in a dive to survey the reef.

The methods they use to survey at Kaloko-Honokohau are very similar to those used by the researchers at Kalaupapa National Park, considering that they are part of the same Inventory and Monitoring project.  First, we used GPS to swim on the surface to the location area of the marker pins, and then we dropped down to the bottom to begin our search for the pins on the bottom. Sometimes we found them immediately, other times it took longer. At Kaloko-Honokohau, unlike at Kalaupapa, the pins had zip ties attached to them, which made them easier to spot. Once we found the first pin or the starting pin, we rolled out meter tape by swimming on a compass bearing in the direction of the ending pin, which was not always easy to find. When we located both pins, we clamped the line down and pulled it taut between the two pins in order to be able to compare photographs taken from the same locations year after year. Once the tape was rolled out, I replaced the old zip ties that were encrusted with living organisms.  Then, Lindsey swam along the transect line with a camera taking pictures every half meter while I moved along the line counting urchins. For the urchin counts, I swam along transect lines while holding a PVC pipe with tape in the center aligned above the transect line. Then, I counted all of the urchins that the pole went over. The pole served as a control for everyone to count urchins the same distance away from the meter tape without having variability among the observers.  I recorded the numbers of rock boring urchins, red spined urchins, black banded urchins, long spined urchins and crown of thorns sea stars onto a waterproof datasheet. After Lindsey finished going down the line, she took photos of specific areas of coral that were marked with cable ties. Next, she took photos of the landscape in the directions of north, south, east, and west to help locate the site next year. Then, I rolled up the meter tape to conclude that transect.  

I learned about the relevance of that data the next day when I had the privilege to sit in on a State of Hawaii Land Use Commission meeting with Sallie Beavers and Superintendent, Kathy Billings. The goal of Kaloko-Honokohau’s participation in the meeting was to ensure that developers and contractors monitor their pumps to see how much water they are removing from the ground. Also, the park wants to ensure that contractors properly contain waste to make sure it does not flow directly into the ocean to protect the reef and pools which lie within park waters. 

The sampling and surveying we are doing now represents the current status of the reef and pools and will be used as a baseline in the future. Since coastal development outside the park is going to continue in the years to come, resource managers at Kaloko-Honokohau are doing their best to protect the park resources from the negative impacts of urbanization. By following the “top to bottom” theory of the Hawaiian land distribution or ahupu’a, Kaloko-Honokohau National Park goes outside of park boundaries to protect what is inside the park. Only by managing the watershed above the park can they manage the reef and anchialine pools within the park. Since the groundwater is the life force for the ecosystems, any pollution or nutrients that go into the water directly affects the park. 

The development activity on the coast outside of the park pumps out groundwater that is essential for the anchialine pools in the park, which host rare life found in few other places on earth. Anchialine pools contain a mixture of ocean saltwater and fresh groundwater.  When the flow of freshwater into the pools is reduced, the salinity goes above normal levels and the water cannot support the precious life that depends on the brackish environment.  

 Also, coastal development produces waste which eventually flows into the ocean through the watershed process. This leads to an increase in nutrients and nitrogen which can potentially harm the reef. The reason we are counting urchins is because they are herbivorous, or algae eating species. Greater levels of nutrients support more alga, and if the urchins are not there to control the algae it can overwhelm the reef and kill the coral. If anything negatively impacts the urchin population, it could in turn damage the reef. If the urchin population is known and the reef is documented while it is still healthy, it will help scientists and resource managers understand future changes and take measures to protect the aquatic environment.    

The following day I did more water quality sampling, this time in the anchialine pools. Our samples were analyzed for nutrients, salinity, temperature, and oxygen, among other components, because the anchialine pools are a good way to assess the quality of the watershed to see what is flowing into the ocean. Also, we recorded other notable characteristics such as the tidal cycle, the surrounding vegetation, and whether or not there were endangered shrimp present in the pools. The landscape we trekked over to get to the pools was interesting as well and I got to see the different types of volcanic rock and patterns the lava flow had formed. I learned about the ‘a’? lava which was rough and chunky and the p?hoehoe lava which was smooth and to me resembled thick pudding that had been poured and cooled.  Also, we stopped to see the historic point of Queen’s Bath.

That weekend I took the opportunity to go with Lindsey and Derek to see Pu’uhonua o Honaunau or the “Place of Refuge” which was a significant sacred ground for ancient Hawaiians. It served as a safe haven for defeated warriors, non-combatants in times of war, and those who violated kapu or sacred laws, as no blood could be shed within its confines and crimes could be absolved there. I also got to see South Point, a green sand beach, and a black sand beach with sea turtles! I had a great time watching the landscape change as we drove around the island in and out of clouds of vog.

I dove every day the following week to do coral reef surveys.  We started at 7:15 AM and usually ended at about 6:00 PM. Each day we loaded all necessary gear into the truck, headed down to the harbor, hitched up the boat, launched it into the water, dove all day, then got the boat out of the water, rinsed it and all of the gear, put it all away, uploaded photos, and prepared for the next day. Needless to say, I realized how hard the employees at Kaloko-Honokohau work when they do these surveys.  Working several, 11-hour days in a row, while diving, certainly helped me sleep well at night. Also, even though the water was 80 degrees, spending so much time down there, I eventually got cold. We made about 4 dives a day which could last up to 80 minutes each. Since some of the sites were close together, we surveyed up to three sites in one dive, navigating in between them with prerecorded bearings. Overall, I thought the reef was beautiful and had a great time spending that much time underwater and diving with Lindsey. I also got the chance to see a Whitetip Reef Shark while I was diving.

On Friday, after a day of survey diving, we arranged to go on a charted boat to dive with Manta Rays at night. I had heard it was an incredible experience, but didn’t really know what to expect. We boarded in the evening and watched the dolphins swimming off the bow as the sun set. Once we arrived to the site, we got a brief lecture of the rules, received our dive lights, and then descended into the black night water. There were several other groups of divers at the bottom, all with their lights in hand. Also, there were many snorkelers at the surface. I was sitting down at the bottom with my light shining up, and then a giant manta ray swam a few inches over my head. I squealed with delight as I watched several more mantas circle gracefully overhead. They made giant loops, swimming so close they would almost touch you, then swooping up at the last second. It was a truly magical experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.  

The next day Lindsey, Derek, and I headed over to the Hilo side of the island to see Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The park shows the results of at least 70 million years of volcanism and is home to two of the world’s most active volcanoes, Kilauea and Mauna Loa. I visited Kilauea and walked through the Thurston Lava Tube, and saw the sulfur banks and steam vents. After the sunset, looking out from the Jagger Museum, a bright orange glow was visible from the inside of the Halema’uma’u Crater. It was quite astonishing to see the molten hot lava which is the place of creation and destruction of the earth’s crust. All and all it was an amazing day to conclude an amazing stay on the Big Island. I can’t wait to visit again!

I would like to give a sincere thank you to Sallie Beavers, Lindsey Kramer, Russ Gillespie, Kathy Billings, Colleen, Derek Kiernan, Coral Reef Divers, and all of those who work to keep the National Parks in Hawaii beautiful.