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Dive Report: Cities Service Empire
Date: Saturday afternoon October 6, 2001
Boat: Reel Time
Captain: Tony Andreoni
By: Mike Rodriguez
Three of the Association of Underwater Explorers (AUE) core divers harvested a
large cooler full of Oculina coral under a permit granted to Dr. Chris Koenig of Florida
State University. The coral would be used in an ongoing restoration project in an area
off the east central Florida coast where this important natural resource has been
decimated by illegal trawling. Oculina coral is known to be an important part
of the local environment and helps support numerous recreational and commercial fish
species. The AUE gang was proud to join Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution,
NOAA, and Florida State University in this effort to restore the environment. As a
bonus, we were joined by two-time Space Shuttle astronaut Brice Melnick (STS-41,
STS-49) who'd heard of our recent dives in the area, and as an open water diver
himself, wanted to see how we work.
The team dove the "Fuggedaboudit Wreck" in the morning and collected a large
amount of coral. Dr. Koenig was surprised at the quantity since his prior attempts to
harvest this coral using manned submersibles, remote operated vehicles, and dredges
were only somewhat successful. On this dive to the Cities Service Empire we
planned to harvest enough additional coral to fill Dr. Koenig's two large coolers.
The Cities Service Empire was a 465 foot long tanker built in 1918. It was named after
it's owner, the Cities Service Oil Company. In 1942, during World War II, the ship
was en-route from Texas to Philadelphia full of oil when it was torpedoed by U-128
off Cape Canaveral, Florida. The ship came to rest upright ~30 miles offshore
Cape Canaveral in 240 feet of water.
I peered into the water as we set up to drop our hook and was dismayed at the yucky
green color which usually indicates poor visibility. Hoping the visibility would improve
in the deeper water, the team of three geared up. The captain brought the boat into
position and we splashed into the water and immediately scootered down next to the
line. The water was warm with the temperature around 78F from top to bottom. There
was a moderate current all the way down, and unfortunately, the visibility deteriorated
as we descended.
I watched my depth as we went down and even at 200 feet I still couldn't see the deck
which is at 210 feet. I continued scootering next to the line into the brisk current but I
slowed down to avoid crashing into something unseen in the poor visibility. I finally
saw the deck when I was about five feet above it. I turned and looked back downstream;
my two buddies' HID lights were barely visible as dull, brown spots. From the
parallax, I could tell they were only a few feet away, so I scootered to the end of our
line and checked the hook.
The team regrouped and quickly found a big clump of healthy coral several feet across.
The three of us set up around the coral sphere and started breaking off pieces and
tossing them into the collection baskets. My buddy on the opposite side of the coral
clump was barely visible in the terribly dirty water. About a minute after we started
harvesting the coral, I saw a big shark swim by directly behind him. I couldn't make out
what species it was, but I think it was a bull. It was about six feet long and only a
couple of feet from my him. My buddy, completely oblivious to the shark behind him,
continued to work on the coral. I screeched at him through my regulator, but by the
time I got his attention, the shark was gone. I nervously signaled what I'd
seen and looked around. Unfortunately, the visibility was so bad there could have been a dozen
sharks a circling a few feet away and we'd have no way of knowing. We hurriedly and
filled the baskets, then quickly attached liftbags and shot them to the surface.
Everyone on the team had made numerous dives on the CSE over the last several
months, so rather than stay in the horrible visibility, we opted to leave early. We started
back toward the upline not at all sure we'd find it again. Fortunately, the three of us
dive together so frequently that we function almost like a single organism. Without any
overt communication between us, we instinctively spread out across the deck of
the ship remaining within signaling distance of our HID lights. This increased the swath of
deck we'd cover as we drifted in the current looking for the line. I was the lucky one
who ran into it first. I signaled my buddies and dropped to retrieve the hook. We
managed to foul it and started up for decompression.
During deco, the line must have caught something on the bottom and we were left
holding on with a moderate current. Again, with our usual efficiently, the three of us
signaled our intent to release the line and shoot liftbags to finish deco drifting in the
current. Like clockwork the three of us released our grip on the line and relaxed.
On our shallow stops we were briefly visited by a curious bull shark then by an overly
friendly remora who pestered us until we got out of the water. Dr. Koenig was very
happy at the quantity of coral we'd managed to harvest. There was so much it barely fit
in the coolers.
We collected our hook, line, and floatball, and with a following sea, got back to the
dock in less than an hour. After checking in with "Pat" at the motel, I joined the gang
for dinner, then went to bed.
The team had a great time and everyone was looking forward to two more dives the
following day on the Pan Massachusetts and again on the CSE; unfortunately, a cold
front swept past the area overnight rendering the conditions unfavorable for diving.
Rather than have a miserable day on a rough, windy, and cold ocean, and since we'd
already harvested more than enough coral for Dr. Koenig's restoration project, we
decided to head home and write some dive reports instead.
Copyright
© 2001 Mike Rodriguez. All rights reserved. |