April 13, 2016 - Conch Wall Dive with Scott and Dave

The Aquarius Reef Base is an underwater habitat located 5.4 miles  off Key Largo in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It is deployed on the ocean floor 62 feet (19 meters) below the surface and next to a deep coral reef named Conch Reef.

My son Scott and my dive buddy Dave want to do a wall dive today, so we are planning to go back to Conch Wall.  Its only about 5 miles offshore of my house.  The dive site is located just 800 yards from Aquarius.  

Topside view of Aquarius

Aquarius is the only undersea laboratory in the world dedicated to science and education. It was owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and operated by the University of North Carolina–Wilmington[1] until 2013 when Florida International University assumed operational control.

From June 1 to July 2, 2014, Fabien Cousteau and his crew spent 31 days living and working in Aquarius in tribute to Jacques Cousteau's 30-day underwater expedition in 1963. Cousteau estimated the team collected the equivalent of two years' worth of surface diving data during the mission, enough for ten scientific papers.

Check out the Aquarius Facebook page for more photos and info:

 https://www.facebook.com/AquariusReefBase/

DIVE DETAILS:

Scott Hewitt

The water was deep blue when we arrived at Conch Wall.  There are 3 mooring buoys located at the top of the wall in about 55' of water.  We picked the middle ball for this dive.  We found quite a lot of current and gave some thought to aborting the dive.  We were concerned about our ability to swim against the current and return safely to the boat.  We tested the current on the surface and found that with effort we could make some headway against the current, but it would take energy and air.  We planned the dive accordingly.  I sent Scott and Dive in first and stayed aboard in case they couldn't make headway against the current and had to be picked up.  I jumped in and joined them shortly.

The wall drops down at about a 45 degree angle to a depth of over 100'.  At 100' a tank of air will only last 10-15minutes vs 90-120 minutes at 20-30' more typical of our dives.  I topped out at 104'.  Average depth of the dive was about 75' and we used 2/3rds of our air in 15 minutes of bottom time.  Bottom time is also determined by non-decompression tables. PADI tables indicate 20 minutes is maximum non decompression bottom time at 100' 

At these depths, viewable colors turn to the blue spectrum unless you have a light source.  I didn't capture a lot of video and wasn't able to show the scope of the wall.

YouTube video of Conch Wall  dive 4-13-16

Night Dive tonight

Scott went back to MN yesterday and today I'm trying to keep up on my video editing and posting.  Dave Rufft and I are also planning a night dive tonight - weather permitting.  We will do a twilight dive first, surface and grab a bite to eat and then await darkness for the final dive.  You see a lot of different things at night and we are looking forward to this.  Lets just hope the predicted scattered thunderstorms don't get in the way.  I will keep working on getting this journal up to date.

April 9th - Turtle Ballet at Molasses Reef

My son Scott made a trip down to visit and do some diving.  The weather cooperated his first day here, so we headed out to the reef.  We decided to explore some more of Molasses Reef, since it was a Saturday and we knew things would be busy.  Molasses has 28 mooring balls, so you can always find a spot.  Some other reef areas fill up on weekends.  We were blessed with calm seas and good visibility.  

The water has warmed up to 75-76 degrees, so I gave up the 4/3 wetsuit and went with a 3 ml Henderson shorty with a vest.  Plenty warm.

We saw a sea turtle at the surface and decided follow it down.  We were honored with a graceful ballet which you will see in this video.  I think you will enjoy this.

April 8 - Dive at Davis Ledge.

For the 2nd dive of the day, David Rufft and I headed to Davis Ledge.  Lobster and Stone Crab were found here.  Excellent visibility and its was like an aquarium of fish.

Video of Dive on Davis Ledge 4-8-16 . Lobster, Crab, Grouper

Grouper

Lionfish

April 8th dive @ Conch Wall

Friday - April 8 2016

David Rufft and I decided to try a deep wall dive today.  He had not had a chance for a Keys wall dive.  Since the conditions were decent we headed out to Conch Wall to check out the current.  When we arrived at the mooring site, the water was deep blue and there was no current and just a slight chop.  Perfect!  We geared up and dropped in at the mooring in 55' feet of depth.  The wall sloped steeply down to 100'.  We encountered more fish and coral than I expected as well as barrel sponges.  Although colors are muted in the dimmer light at these depths, it was still very pleasant.  Some colorful angelfish and then a large Green Moray Eel sighting kept things interesting.  I captured some interesting video below.

As always, comments are welcome.  Enjoy.

March 17th Solo Dive at Conch Reef - Interesting Balloonfish

March 17, 2016

With the weather still be favorable - I headed out to Conch Reef for a solo dive.  I decided to try the NE buoy where the pillar coral is located.  I was surprised to find out how devastated those coral pillars are.  Probably 70% has died off.  

Further down the reef I did encounter a very cute little balloon fish.  I also captured some good video of a christmas tree worm as it emerged from the coral.  A very nice dive.

This Youtube video is about Conch Reef 3-17-16. Pillar Coral. Balloon fish Christmas tree worms

Comments are always welcome.

Mark Hewitt

Swimming with the fishes at Snappers Ledge

March 15, 2016

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Another great day for diving on Tuesday.  We started at the SW end of Molasses to explore a new area of that reef.  Lots of current and visibility wasn't the best.  We did see some large Barracuda like this.

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School  of Yellow Grunts

Then we moved on to try Snappers Ledge.  The buoy was taken by a dive boat, so we waited it out while tied up a nearby Pickles.  There a sea turtle swam up to the back of our boat looking for a handout.  About 4:30, as expected, the dive boat pulled out and we motored over to the single mooring buoy at Snappers.  It was worth the wait as the reef was full of schooling fish as expected, as well as a few other surprise, a dancing lobster and a nurse shark.  After nearly 50 minutes of bottom time, we headed back to shore.  Another good day.

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YouTube Video -Diving at Snappers - Shark and Lobster

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NW area of French Reef - Buoy #9 - March 14, 2016

For our 2nd dive of the day, David and I decided to explore the NW area of the reef.  A little shallower than the grotto areas.  Looked much like Molasses Reef.  I got shot nice shots of a French Angelfish as well as a Stingray.

Water temps were around 74 with a 8-9 knot wind.  Visibility was decent, but not great.

Filefish'

Youtube Video.  French Angelfish, Sting Ray, Lobster and parrotfish.

David Rufft.

The Grottos of French Reef

March 14, 2016

After 7 days of 20+ knot winds, this week started out with calmer seas, so David and I headed back out to French Reef to explore more of the reef.  We specifically were looking for Sand Cave grotto,  which neither of us had dived before.  Sand Cave is in the middle of the reef, we found it about 50 yards shoreward from buoy#5.  It took us awhile to find it as we discovered smaller grottos first.  Finally found the back entrance to Sand Cave - it was a wide grotto with plenty of sun penetration.  As we went through we bound a Lionfish on the ceiling. Seas were alone on the reef.  Seas were a bit choppy with water temp at 74.

Youtube video -The Grottos of French Reef  Join David Rufft and me as we venture into the grottos , including Sand Cave, in the middle of French Reef, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. You will see a Lionfish on the ceiling of the grotto. Also barracuda, Hogfish and braincoral

A very enjoyable dive.

David Rufft

David entering Sand Cave Grotto