The Sunday after working with Eric and Quest Marine Services, I was invited out again aboard the Quest to dive with the Boston Sea Rovers aboard a 1901 freighter, the Trojan. The vessel sank after being struck by passing ship as the Trojan lay at anchor in a fog bank. The vessel was carrying bronze ingots and empty medicine bottles. While the bronze has long since been recovered, many medicine bottles still lie in the hull of the Trojan. I made two dives on the ship. The first one with Eric. This dive was designed to familiarize me with the wreck. Like all New England diving, the Trojan is cloaked in dark green, cold waters. After a brief surface interval, I made a second dive with Dave Morton. This time, we collected bottles. Dave penetrated into the hull a short distance, while I stayed on the deck and placed the bottles he collected into a sack. Upon returning to the surface, we cleaned the bottles and took pictures. After returning to the dock, we helped Eric clean the boat and called it a day. And what an amazing day it was.
Category: intern-blog
Quest Marine Services
Eric Takakjian and Quest Marine Services would be my next stop on the internship. Quest Marine Services is a company owned by Eric and Lori Takakjian operating out of New Bedford Harbor. Aboard their vessel, the R/V Quest, the Takakjian’s offer a variety of research support services. The week I was out with them, a joint group from the Mass Division of Marine Fisheries, Applied Signal Technologies, and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab were testing a new McCartney Focus II tow vehicle mounted with an Edgetech side scan sonar unit. Having a stable tow vehicle is crucial to gaining crisp imagery from a mounted side scan sonar unit. The Focus II, the only one currently in the United States, utilizes an inertial navigation system and stabilizer planes to keep the vehicle both stable, and on a preset track line. As with any research expedition, problems were encountered. It took us nearly the whole week just to get the operation up and running. But, after many trials and tribulations we eventually got underway. I even had the opportunity to help out with the repair efforts. Again, this was another fantastic experience. I thank Eric and Lori Takakjian for inviting me into their wonderful home and allowing me to take part in the expedition.
http://www.questmarineservices.com
http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dmf/
http://www.appsig.com
http://www.jhuapl.com
Woods Hole
Today, I went down to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute to dive with Terry Rioux, the dive safety officer. I met Vin Malkoski at his home in Marion around noon and drove down to Falmouth. We toured around the village of Woods Hole for a few hours while we waited on Terry. We visited the WHOI aquarium (Vin forgot his license and had to beg to be let in), which contained a variety of New England Marine life. We grabbed a quick lunch and headed over to the Oceanographic institute where we met up with Terry. The plan for the dive was to dive off the main pier the institute sits on. Apparently, a tower had fallen off the pier and needed recovery. We didn’t find the tower, but we did encounter such WHOI relics as WHOIhenge, an underwater mound of bricks that require proper respects be paid to before continuing, and several gargoyles located at the bottom of the drop line.
Aboard the M/V Gauntlet
My first experience on the internship involved working with the good people of Northern Atlantic Diving Expeditions. Heather Knowles and Dave Caldwell operate a dive charter off their custom-built dive boat the M/V Gauntlet. As a member of the crew, I became “deck swabby”. Which, according to Dave, came with such duties as carrying his gear and washing it (when asked how it felt to have an intern, he replied “My backs never felt better; and my gear has never been cleaner”). Although, in his defense, he never actually made me clean his gear. My time with Heather and Dave was also spent training towards a drysuit certification that Dave generously donated to the internship. Overall, I had an amazing time working with Heather, Dave, and Roman (another member of the crew). This is where I found out I get seasick as well.
DUI DOG Days Rally
Today I would try out my new drysuit for the first time. Each year, Dick Long and Sue Long from DUI, along with Faith Ortins, donate a custom fitted drysuit to the Scalli internship. As any New England diver knows, drysuits are pretty much a must if one wishes to do any serious diving around here. Prior to this, the only drysuit diving I had done had be as part of a Kirby Morgan superlight I dove with a few years prior. DOG Days is the DUI owners group rally where divers can come and try out DUI gear free of charge. In addition to myself, Brenda Mahoney, the Our Underwater World Scholar was at the rally as well (DUI donates a drysuit to OUWS as well). Vin Malkoski and Faith gave me and Brenda a brief introduction to the proper use and care of a drysuit. Then, Faith helped me cut the seals and I suited up for my first dive in my new CF 200. Andy Martinez stopped by to say hello. After suiting up Vin, my dad, Pat Scalli, and I headed down to the beach for the inaugural dive. The suit preformed beyond expectation, and with the help of a drysuit course, I was confident I would quickly master the skill of drysuit diving.
The Boston Sea Rover Seminar
The morning of March 2nd, I arrived at the Copley Fairmont in Boston not knowing what to expect. The first item on the agenda was COMS or Career Opportunities in the Marine Sciences. This program caters to local High School students, exposing them to a variety of marine careers with the hope of sparking interest in the ocean. It is here that the previous year’s intern also gives their presentation officially for the first time. Unfortunately, do to flight issues, last years intern, Katy Marston couldn’t be at COMS, so the interns from the previous years stood up and talked about their adventures. That night I attended the pre-clinic cocktail reception at the Gamble Mansion where I was again inundated by many introductions. From then on I was constantly on the go. Pat Morton took me by the arm and hauled me around, introducing me to what seemed like every member of the diving community. I visited with Faith Ortins who fitted me for a new drysuit generously donated by DUI each year to the internship. I also attended a wonderful seminar by Annie Crawly on underwater video. This year, John Ellerbrock of Gates underwater housings donated a new HD underwater video camera and housing to the Scalli internship. During the Saturday night film festival, I officially became the intern as Patrick Scalli introduced me to the crowd that had gathered in the Hancock auditorium. Perhaps the most exciting announcement though came as Steve Drogin announced that he would be hosting me in Costa Rica aboard the Sea Hunter out on Cocos Island. Ernie Brooks was generous enough to pay for my airfare. My weekend spent at the Sea Rovers Seminar was simply an amazing experience. I wish to extend my thanks to Dan Orr of Divers Alert Network for donating a year of preffered dive insurance and to Bob Boyle of Undersea Divers for donating a brand new set of dive equipment.
http://www.thesilverseas.com
http://www.uwphoto.com
http://www.underseadivers.com
http://www.diversalertnetwork.org
My First Night at Harvard
It was a cold night in January as I rode the escalator from the Redline Station to Harvard Square. This would be my very first activity as the Boston Sea Rover’s Frank Scalli intern. Shortly after receiving an email from Pat announcing that I had been selected for the internship, I received a second email from George Buckley, a Sea Rover and professor at Harvard University inviting me to attend his extension school class on Ocean Environments. I was excited; in part because I could now say I went to Harvard, and also to take an opportunity to learn more of what lay beneath the surface of the ocean. However, this excitement was quickly snuffed as I emerged upon the surface and realized I had absolutely no idea where I was going. Worse yet, class began in only five minutes. After rushing across the campus every which way stopping random people for directions, I finally made it to Emerson Hall with perhaps 10 seconds to spare. As I burst into the room, I nearly ran into George, who was standing on an elevated platform upon which lay a desk crammed with random media equipment for presentation. Thankfully, he recognized me immediately, saving any awkward introductions, and quickly introduced me to his staff. The class itself was an amazing experience. Over the next few weeks, we would cover a variety of topics from salt marshes extending all the way to the deepest depths of the oceans.
Welcome to Moorehead City
The drive down to North Carolina in Lee Livingston’s suburban was mostly uneventful. We arrived in Moorehead city around noon, one day after we departed Connecticut. We hung out at the Olympus dive shop for several hours getting our c-cards checked out and everyone payed up for the upcoming week in diving. We also had several hours to kill before we could check into the Buccaneer Inn. In the meantime, we visited a doctor who had a look at my ear, and told me I had caught a spectacular case of swimmer’s ear. It was incredibly painful, but I survived until the following day to go diving. On Monday we woke up at 6, were on the road by 6:30 and were pulling out of the dock by 7 am sharp. The seas were calm while the Midnight Express motored out to the first dive sight. The trip took about two hours. We arrived at our destination a little before nine and the crew set the anchor while Bobby the captain gave us a dive briefing. I listened attentively. The conditions sounded fantastic to me. Visibility was between 60 and 80 feet (this prompted a slightly disappointed “Oh” from the passengers) with no current on the surface or on the bottom. Bobby gave us a quick history of the dive site. It was a coast guard cutter sunk as part of an artificial reef program two years ago. The ship was sunk about 200 yards from another wreck the Aeolus, allowing fish and sharks to commute between the two wrecks, creating a more extensive habitat. I began donning my rig with my dive buddy Betsy. It was liberating to only where a 3ml wetsuit after last weeks drysuit. I needed little in the way of weight and the only extra gear I had to wear was a pony bottle, for the depth. While we were suiting up, it was warm out, but not too warm too make you sweat. Jumping into the water was fantastic. It was just cool enough to be refreshing after wearing a wetsuit out of the water for half an hour. Slipping under the surface the water was a beautiful blue color and I could actually see all the other divers nearly 100 feet beneath us. Betsy and I began our descent onto the wreck. It was remarkable to see the ship, still looking new and workable even though it had been underwater for two years. The aquatic life was abundant, though not in comparison to the wrecks we saw later in the week. The most interesting part of the dive was exploring the ship, still so intact that some of the gauges were still in the control room. However since the wrecks off the coast in North Carolina are unprotected, the gauges certainly won’t be there for long. Huge bits of the ships were removed for divers to enter the inside of the wreck. It is possible to swim through most of the ship down the hallways since nothing has caved in yet. I did not attempt this, since I was contented with what I could see from the outside of the ship. Air goes fast at 100 feet, where the wreck was at, so after 15 minutes at the bottom (breathing nitrox) Betsy and I headed for the surface. The ascent takes forever from that depth and we did a nice long safety stop at fifteen feet, so the dive is close to forty minutes long by the time you get back to the boat. Since the dives are so deep, a long surface interval is required too. I spent this time doing cannon balls off the bow of the boat with Betsy and her sister Katy. After a while, just about everyone joined in the fun and we had diving and cannonball contests. After a while it was time to eat so we did one last jump and hunkered down to our bagged lunches. Soon enough we were gearing up again. We hopped into the water and descended again. The second dive was just as enjoyable as the first with warm water and great visibility, though it was a little shorter, just to be on the safe side. About half of the passengers on the boat slept on the way back. When the boat made it back to the dock, we unloaded our tanks to get them filled then headed back to the hotel.
The Joys of a Working Camera
The third and fourth days of my Optiquatics trip went by quickly, though I only did three dives over the two days since I had come down with a stomach bug. I did one dive on the last day since I had to fly out the following morning. This dive was probably my favorite out of all the dives. We dove on a rock formation with a giant underwater arch. There was a huge variety of marine life there, more than any of the other dives we had done all week. And best of all my camera worked for almost the entire dive. Up till this final dive I had managed a meager fifteen pictures. I took more than forty on this dive alone. I shot everything, the seaweed, the sponges, the ugly little fish, the fickle garibaldis. I even managed to get a picture of a nudibranchs that wasn’t a Spanish Shawl. This was especially tricky because I caught sight of the nudibranchs under the arch where the lighting was dismally dark. I several pictures of the critter, but only one is recognizable. The dive was a blast. I was delighted the entire time. Even better was looking at the pictures when I got back topside. I was giddy. A lot of the pictures came out well. They were miles from the quality and artistry of everyone else on the boat, but a few were reasonably well exposed and decently framed. I did not manage to capture the brilliant colors that I know most of the critters possessed. This final dive did instill in me a burning desire to own my own underwater camera. On the last day the crew motored the boat back to Ventura harbor where everyone said goodbye. Mostly everyone needed to fly home, so the majority of us made our way to the Ventura Harbor Hilton where I enjoyed a nice long shower and stationary bed before flying home the next morning. Overall, diving in the Channel Islands was probably the most exciting, colorful, and challenging diving that I have done to date. And taking pictures with a working camera was probably the most fun I have ever had underwater it was fantastic. I am really inspired to go get my own camera now. I just wish they were a little cheaper:)
A Harem of Octopi
On the second dive of my second day on the Peace, I saw a fish the size of a sedan. It was a black sea bass. It was huge. I encountered the bass hanging out under some kelp at a depth of about forty feet. He was wary of my dive buddy Steve and I, so we couldn’t get a great look at him. The visibility was maybe thirty feet, so the giant fish sort of loomed in the distance, a giant dark being. Other than the black sea bass, who we followed for some ways, there was not much to see at the Italian Gardens dive site. It is mostly a gravel bottom with some sheepshead crabs, an anemone here and there and huge ropes of kelp reaching up towards the surface. In some places the kelp strands are ten feet apart, in other places the giant sea weed is only inches apart. After about thirty minutes, we started our ascent and finally climbed back on the boat. As usual, there were copious amounts of food awaiting all the divers at the termination of the dive. Lunch was delicious as usual. Afterwards, all the passengers relaxed momentarily. Actually, I relaxed, everyone else on the boat began to fiddle compulsively with their cameras. The crew of the boat pulled up anchor and we motored back out to ship rock island. Soon enough we were gearing up again. At this point I could don my drysuit in less than five minutes, which I considered a huge accomplishment. I hopped into the water after my dive buddy Andy. I was deemed worthy to carry the camera again by Joe, though this time another passenger had lent me a retractable lanyard thing, so I had no risk of losing it. Andy and I made our descent and set off to look for critters. Of course there’s not too far to go since the marine life is so abundant. In a minute or so Andy was off photographing kelp while I searched in the many rock crevices for some interesting critters. It wasn’t long before I found about ten spiny lobsters hanging out upside down in a small rocky overhang. They swayed back and forth and stared at me from under the rock with their eyestalks. I grabbed my camera, pumped at an opportunity to take a picture of something exciting and recognizable. I bent the strobe arm and pointed it towards the inside of the small cage. I pushed the camera as far in front of me as the nervous lobsters would allow. The strobe was on and lit. The camera was on and ready. I framed up my shot and pressed the shutter button….nothing. I tried again. I pressed the buttons Joe had instructed me to press. I tried again. Nothing. Aggravated, I retrieved Andy and showed him my lobsters, then my camera. He grabbed it and fiddled, but to no avail. The camera was sadly busted. I retracted the camera, made sure it was secured to my bc, and went off with Andy in search of more wild life, after he was done photographing my gaggle of lobsters. A few Spanish shawls later I was looking for some more big stuff in the rocks. Andy got excited and pointed. I followed his finger to a small octopus, picking his way across a rock face. Andy chased the octopus into another crevice where it stopped and stared sullenly at his pursuer. I looked around while Andy snapped shot after shot of what was still visible of the octo. Funny, the rocks all around looked awfully strange. This was because we had swum into a harem of octopus. They’re were seven or eight of them, camouflaged brilliantly, stuck to rocks in the wide open. I poked Andy and pointed to all the octopi. He looked shocked. He hit his head in the traditional “duh” gesture and began to shoot. I took out my camera hopefully and attempted another shot. Nothing. Oh well, I enjoyed watching the funny creatures nonetheless. The cephalopods took Andy’s attention rather well for a while, then got sick of the flashes and flounced into tiny crevices. Andy gave me a high five and we made our way back to the boat. On the boat, we told everyone else about the octopus harem. No one actually believed us until the pictures were downloaded because octopus are usually such solitary creatures. No one had ever heard of a behavior like that before. I had my camera checked out topside, everything was in order, there was no explanation for why it had not worked. Not long after we got out of the water, we were in the process of getting back in the water. After suiting up, Andy and I hopped in the water for our final dive of the day. The dive was uneventful for the most part, aside from my camera malfunctioning again. It took three pictures then dies. A red light started flashing, the battery was dead. During the dive we saw a sea lion shoot by and a diving cormorant. It was cool to see the bird underwater, it looked seriously out of place. After that, we saw mostly run of the mill critters. The Spanish shawls were still ubiquitous, as were the garibaldi. Luckily these animals never get old, so I had a perfectly happy dive. After some time had passed Andy and I found ourselves in a shallow spot, were the surge got really intense. It was strange since we had been in the same spot during the last dive and there was no surge. The surge was so strong we were quickly disoriented. Despite the copious photographic opportunities, we turned back, and got deeper to avoid the surge. We looked around for the anchor line back to the boat but couldn’t find it. Since we were both getting low on air, we started our descent up a single strand of kelp. We attempted to do a safety stop, but found it impossible when the kelp bent flat with the rising current. We surfaced, not to far from the boat, maybe 100 feet off the bow and 25 feet to the left of the boat. We swam for the boat at a somewhat leisurely pace. This turned out to be a mistake. The water was sucking us at a rapid rate towards the craggy rock sticking out of the water. The rock was behind the stern of the boat, but it was so hard to make it the 25 feet over to the boat. I caught the knot at the end of the current line thrown off the stern. I was so tired from swimming I just hung there for a moment. But the current was still pulling so hard even this cost a lot of energy. I started pulling myself along the line towards the boat, Andy behind me. The line was slippery, it was hard to get a good grip with my gloves on. Eventually I couldn’t pull myself anymore, the current was too strong. Andy was no longer behind me on the line. I learned later that he had dropped his camera. I noticed other divers popping up all over the place. No one could make it to the current line, and the current was starting to take the other divers around the rock. Steve got in the zodiac and went after the divers who were floating away. Another crewman started hauling me in on the stern line. As it turned out, I had had one of the more pleasant trips back to the boat. Several other divers were towed in behind the zodiac, a few made it most of the way up the anchor line before losing it, but they caught the current line. Andy popped up several minutes later, camera in hand, 70 pounds of air left on his back. He made it back to the boat unscathed. A few people went on a night dive that evening, but I was sound asleep by 10 o’clock, it had been a heck of a day.