What is Your Favorite Caribbean Dive Vacation

What is your favorite Caribbean dive destination?

GO HERE and cast your vote. Tell us your favorite. Check back often to see other favorites. You might just find a new favorite.

http://www.squidoo.com/warmwaterpoll

Free Computer

Buy a ScubaPro BC with Air2 and a Regulator combination and get a free Aladin Prime Wrist Computer. Call Dive Center for Details.

August 22, 2008 Newsletter

You too can be the envy of the Midwest Diving community by sporting your very own Sea Lions Logo Hat. Bring in this newsletter and save 20% on your choice of colors.

Confused about dive computers? We prepared a short guide to the Uwatec computers that we carry that will help sort out the differences. Visit our blog for more information.

Thursday September 4, 2008 at 7:30 PM we will present TRIP NIGHT. We will show videos of our up coming trips and

Only one spot remains for the Nekton Cruise to St Croix August 8, 2009. We can reserve more spots but the cost will increase $300. Call to reserve your spot.

Thirteen divers joined us to explore the wreck of the Straits and Mackinaw and the Wells Burt. Visit our Trip Report to see all the pictures.

We will be holding our next Advanced Open Water class September 6 and 7. Call to sign up. None student can join us for the night dive.

Visit our Blog for Jaclyn Mandowske’s report on her three weeks on a live aboard. Jaclyn completed her open water class with us earlier this year.

Our next Lake Michigan Charter to Milwaukee will be September 14, 2008. We will be diving the wrecks of Milwaukee aboard the Len-Der. Call for reservations.

Do you have a spouse or friend who would like to learn to dive in warm water? Sign up for our Bahamas education package.

August 15 Newsletter

Mark your calendars: at 8 PM on September 4, 2008 we will have a presentation on our 2008/2009 Dive Trips. We will show videos on North Carolina, Key Largo, our Nekton St Croix trip, Straits of mackinaw – the [place not the ship -Bonne Terre, Gilboa and much more.

If there is a trip you always wanted to do but did want to go alone let us know and we will try and put together a group trip.

Congratulations to our newest Open Water Divers Leslie Armstrong, Jeff Jensen, Suchi Patel, Surrender Sara, Andre Lareau, Mike Skonie, Jim and Jordan Habel, Donna and Dwight Priest, and Mike Wallenberg.

We have eight of our 5 spots on the Nekton trip to St. Croix committed. To get our special $600 off pricing you must reserve by close of business Monday. We can reserve additional; spots but it will be an additional $300 for the spots after ten. There is no reservation without a deposit.

Everyone who has been on our North Carolina trip has seen the influx of Lionfish that is happening in the Atlantic. I posted an Associated Press article on our blog about this foreign species invasion. According to the article they came from a fish tank damaged by a hurricane.

Do not forget our Open Pool Monday August 18, 2008. You must sign up in advance. The cost is $10 per person and we will supply any equipment you need.

There will be a clean up dive at Burnham Harbor on September 20, 2008.

On October 2 through 5 we will return to dive North Carolina. Click here for details.

We are looking to do a special buy on 80 CF SCUBA Tanks in September. If we get ten buyers we can offer them for only $250. Call us or email us to reserve one. For a neat video on how a tank is made visit or Tank Site.

Look for a special offer in September to get a free Uwatec computer with your dive gear purchase.

We will hold a Digital Photography Specialty class on September 21, 24 and 28. Call the Dive Center to register.

Presidential/Scuba Trivia

According to this report the USS Orinsky that has become an artificial reef - the Great Carrier Reef - off Pensacola was the ship Presidential Candidate' plane launched on the flight where he was shot down and became a war prisoner.

The Wells Burt

Sea Lions Dive Center visited the wreck of the Wells Burt on Sunday August 14, 2008.

This wreck is shallow - about 40 feet - and has great historic detail. For more info on the Wells Burt CLICK HERE

For info on the Charter Click Here

http://www.squidoo.com/wellsburt
http://www.squidoo.com/trip81708

Jaclyn goes to the Caribbean

One of our recent Open Water students, Jaclyn Mandoske, was able to spend three weeks on a live aboard in the Caribbean. Her is her picture and yes that is a Sea Lions Logo hat and ScubaPro gear. Ah, Mom, who is she with??????????


After spending three weeks on a live aboard dive trip through the the Winward Islands I came back with these photos. My trip started in Grenada and from there we sailed up through St. Vincent and the Grenedines to St. Lucia all the while diving multiple dives a day. I lived with nine other teenagers on a 46-foot catamaran. It was definetly the best trip of my life. Every place we went to was more beautiful then the next and the diving was absolutly gorgeous. The program was through Broadreach and it takes teenagers on dive trips all around the world. I became a certified Rescue Diver in those three weeks and also recieved six specialties. There's no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't choose another trip like this and I completely recommend them. I fell in love with diving because of this and it is now something I will continue to do for the rest of my life.

Top Ten Gifts for Divers Under $100

Ok guys, here is an opportunity to not just get another tie for Christmas/Birthday whatever. We have prepared a list of gifts for divers under $50 dollars.

Have an item you want your family to know about? Let us share it.

Find our list HERE.

Post you suggest here... or there.

http://www.squidoo.com/divegifts

Prins Willem

September 14, 2008 Sea Lions will be diving the wrecks of Milwaukee including the The Prins Willem. Call the Dive Center at 620-289-1680 to ign up or email us. No reservation will be held without payment!

Learn to Dive at Sea Lions and in the Bahamas

Want to learn to dive? Want to visit the Bahamas? How about take the pool and classroom here with Sea Lions Dive Centrer then fly to Freeport Bahamas to do two days of checkout dives and one day of two tank boat diving.

Only $1,400 including books, DVD, equipments, air fare to Freeport, four nights at the Pelican Bay, two days of checkout dives, and one day two tank boat dive.

Classes start January 5, 2009


For more informations CLICK HERE or Email Us.

http://www.squidoo.com/learndivebahamas

Dive Computers

Visit any dive related board or chat room and you will quickly notice one of the hot recurring topics is "are dive tables such as the PADI Recreational Dive Planner safer than Computers."

For a more detailed discussion on dive computers please CLICK HERE.





http://www.squidoo.com/scubaprocomputers

Lake Michigan Charter Trip Report

On August 17, 2008 Sea Lions Dive Center took thirteen divers on a Lake Michigan Charter to the Straits of Mackinaw and the Wells Burt. The Lake was calm, the weather was good and the Air Show was in progress.

For a complete report and pictures CLICK HERE






http://www.squidoo.com/trip81708

Invasive Species in Lake Michigan

We all know about zebra mussels but there are other invasive species in Lake Michigan. This article for the Tribune discusses some of the species and the changes they are causing.

Underwater, a disturbing new world

A Tribune team follows researchers to the bottom of Lake Michigan as they try to explain the rapidly shifting ecosystem

By James Janega | Chicago Tribune reporter

July 30, 2008

OFF ATWATER BEACH, Wis.—This place should be an underwater desert.

But as the three researchers wearing scuba tanks and lead weights drop through the water, the landscape of rounded stones 30 feet below is disturbingly full of strange, new life.

In just a few years, the gravel and white boulders that for centuries covered the bottom of Lake Michigan between Chicago and the Door County, Wis., peninsula have disappeared under a carpet of mussels and primitive plant life.

The change is not merely cosmetic. In the last three years or so, scientists say, invasive species have upended the ecology of the lakes, shifting distribution of species and starving familiar fish of their usual food supply.

Signs of the shift have been hard to ignore. Mats of dead, smelly algae wash ashore on Lake Michigan from Chicago to the Straits of Mackinac, castoffs of a vast underwater expanse seen from boat decks and from hilltops at Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan. Fishermen haul it up in their nets, dubbing it "lake moss."

Multiple strains of E. coli bacteria and botulism spores thrive in the new underwater garden, leading scientists to suspect they are contributing to beach closings and the widespread deaths of migratory birds. Meanwhile, fishermen notice the lake trout, salmon and whitefish are getting skinnier each season.

The rapid shift has researchers scrambling to understand what is happening and how widely the impact will be felt.

"The lake is changing faster than we can study it," said University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee researcher Harvey Bootsma, whose small team of researchers hunts explanations from this new lake bottom in weekly dives off the Wisconsin shore.

Adaptation possible

Some ecologists and fishery managers say the Great Lakes may adapt, noting that some fish seem to be eating the most common invasive species. But experts also say the species are fueling change in the lakes at a rate far faster than they have ever seen.

"We don't necessarily know all the impacts, but we know enough to know that they are being catastrophic," said Cameron Davis, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes. "The ecological balance of the Great Lakes is at a tipping point. And the question is: Can they recover? Or can we act quickly enough to help them recover?"

None of the key species leading the change—mussels, algae and round gobies—are new arrivals. The zebra mussel famously invaded Lake Michigan two decades ago, and its cousin, the quagga mussel, wasn't far behind.

But in the last handful of years the quagga has taken off with alarming speed, exploding across the lake floor.

While zebra mussels like to attach themselves to rocks and man-made structures, the quaggas can colonize sandy bottoms deeper in the lakes. Between them, the species filter lake water ceaselessly, making it so crystal clear that light can penetrate far deeper than before.

That change has allowed a native species of algae called cladophora to run rampant. It now can grow in 30 feet of water, twice as deep as a decade ago, and its waving tendrils cover vast offshore areas.

Round gobies, an invasive fish species from the Black Sea willing to eat the mussels, love this new environment. They breed prolifically and are now the most abundant fish species found in many parts of the lake.

Together, these species have not only altered the clarity of the water but also devoured and filtered out the nutrients that used to sustain plankton and shrimplike diporeia at the base of the lake's food chain, starving what larger fish are left.

To be sure, the Great Lakes ceased to be a wholly native ecosystem long ago. Atlantic alewives sneaked into the lakes in 1873. People began stocking rainbow trout and chinook salmon shortly after the alewives, and added brown trout and coho salmon to the mix by 1933.

By the 1950s, the most important fish in the native food chain—lake trout, ciscoes and spiny sculpins—were nearly gone in the lower lakes and severely reduced in Lakes Michigan and Huron. Still, scientists say perch, salmon and the alewives on which they foraged formed a relatively stable ecosystem until the invasive mussels began devouring key microscopic nutrients.

"Now all the forage fish are way down in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron," said Henry Vanderploeg, a Great Lakes ecologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "There's a crisis. The mussels are really messing up the food chain."

It's possible fish will weather the changes. Fishermen have caught lake trout that had gobies in their stomachs, and smallmouth bass in Lake Erie have doubled their size in 10 years by feasting on gobies, said Marc Gaden, spokesman for the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission.

How to Buy Dive Gear

Buying Dive Gear is confusing.

At Sea Lions Dive Center we want you to be as informed as you can be when you decide to make your purchase.

We have prepared a number of links to articles on how to choose various equipment and we have a special web page that may help. Those links are listed in the box in the upper left hand corner of this blog.

Nothing can replace personal advice. So do your research and come visit us.

If we can do some further research to help you out let us know.

We understand you may not buy all your dive gear from Sea Lions but we want to be the Center of you Diving activity. Visit our sites and our Dive center and tell us what we can do to make your diving experience better.

http://www.squidoo.com/buydivegear
http://www.divegear.weebly.com

You Know Your a Diver When

You know your a diver when..... you get up at 7 AM on your vacation to get on a dive boat.

We all know you do things as a diver that a sane person would never consider. For our list visit our You Know your a Diver When website. Ad your contribution.

http://www.squidoo.com/knowyouareadiver

Try Scuba

If you are hooked on SCUBA diving (why else would you be reading our blog) and would like to share your passion with family, friends or coworkers, Sea Lions dive Center offers monthly Try SCUBA at the Elgin Taylor YMCA.

For information Click Here TRYSCUBA IN SUBURBAN CHICAGO or cut and paste this URL to your browser, http://www.squidoo.com/tryscuba. Call Sea Lions Dive Center 630-289-1680 for times and dates.

Certified Divers can also take advantage of our monthly open pool night to try out their equipment, work on skills or just have fun. Visit our website www.sealions.org for times and dates.

High pressure tanks including SCUBA tanks must be visually inspected annually and must be hydro tested every five years. This is not a Sea Lions Dive Center requirement it is required by law. We had a customer in the dive shop recently who insisted we fill his tank without a current visual. When we refused he became quite vocal and said that we were trying to cheat him and began making other abusive and loud remarks regarding our prices. He said he could buy dive gear for half our prices at a local sporting goods store and on the Internet. We asked him to leave and his parting comment was “an informed customer is your worst enemy.”

In fact a “misinformed customer is our worst enemy.” We do our best to offer products and services at competitive prices. The sporting goods store – who has since discontinued selling dive gear – sold only low end regulators to customers only interested in price. They offered no expertise, no help selecting gear, no service and no airfills. We had a customer bring in one of these “bargain regulators.” The reg was in pieces and the sporting goods store could not even assemble the parts.

Regarding the Internet, dive store employees, including those of us at Sea Lions get very defensive when people talk about buying gear on the Internet. The internet sites skim the cream and offer the highest margin items at a discount but do not offer the lower margin items such as service and air fills.

We know you look at the Internet… so do we. Buying dive gear on the Internet is a crap shoot. Many times you will purchase the gear and it will work out for you. But when it goes bad it can go real bad. Many of the Internet sites are not authorized dealers. We sell Uwtech Computer in part because they we feel they have the best warrantee in the industry. If you buy Uwatech or ScubaPro on the Internet you do not get that warrantee no matter who you buy it from.

If you find that you would like to support our effort to offer local services but cannot resist the Internet please visit our dive gear site. You will find helpful articles on purchasing dive gear and you will also find links to Internet sites that sell dive gear. If you enter these sites through the link on our web page when you purchase we will receive a small commission but it will not increase your cost.

I apologize for the length of this rant but it is a sensitive and important issue.

For more information on the manufacture and maintenance of SCUBA tanks visit our SCUBA Tank Maintenance Website.

http://www.squidoo.com/scubatank
http://www.squidoo.com/buydivegear

Fresh Water Fish Identification

What's that Fish????? This is a picture of a paddlefish taken at Mermet Springs. These fish are native to Illinois and have been placed in many quarries for the entertainment of Divers.

For more information on Fresh Water Fish visit our Cold Water fish identification page.

Lionfish in Atlantic

Those of you who have traveled with us to North Carolina have seen how the lionfish have begun to take over. I found this article that shows what can happen when a "pet" gets out. According to this article all these fish descended from 6 that escaped in a hurricane.

Original link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184738/



updated 4:55 p.m. CT, Wed., Aug. 13, 2008

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - A maroon-striped marauder with venomous spikes is rapidly multiplying in the Caribbean's warm waters and even off the East Coast — swallowing native species, stinging divers and generally wreaking havoc on an ecologically delicate region.

The red lionfish, a tropical native of the Indian and Pacific oceans that probably escaped from a Florida fish tank, is showing up everywhere — from the coasts of Cuba and Hispaniola to Little Cayman's pristine Bloody Bay Wall, one of the region's prime destinations for divers.

Wherever it appears, the adaptable predator corners fish and crustaceans up to half its size with its billowy fins and sucks them down in one violent gulp.

Research teams observed one lionfish eating 20 small fish in less than 30 minutes.

"This may very well become the most devastating marine invasion in history," said Mark Hixon, an Oregon State University marine ecology expert who compared lionfish to a plague of locusts. "There is probably no way to stop the invasion completely."

A white creature with maroon stripes, the red lionfish has the face of an alien and the ribbony look of something that survived a paper shredder — with poisonous spikes along its spine to ward off enemies.

Scale of invasion is unique
The invasion is similar to that of other aquarium escapees such as walking catfish and caulerpa, a fast-growing form of algae known as "killer seaweed" for its ability to crowd out native plants. The catfish are now common in South Florida, where they threaten smaller fish in wetlands and fish farms.

In Africa, the Nile Perch rendered more than 200 fish species extinct when it was introduced into Lake Victoria. The World Conservation Union calls it one of the 100 worst alien species invasions.

"Those kinds of things happen repeatedly in fresh water," Hixon said "But we've not seen such a large predatory invasion in the ocean before."

The lionfish so far has been concentrated in the Bahamas, where marine biologists are seeing it in every habitat: in shallow and deep reefs, off piers and beaches, and perhaps most worrisome, in mangrove thickets that are vital habitats for baby fish.

Some spots in the Bahamian archipelago between New Providence and the Berry Islands are reporting a tenfold increase in lionfish just during the last year.

Northern Caribbean islands have sounded the alarm, encouraging fishermen to capture lionfish and divers to report them for eradication.

The invasion would be "devastating" to fisheries and recreational diving if it reached Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to Eugenio Pineiro-Soler of the Caribbean Fishery Management Council.

"I think at the best they will have a huge impact on reef fish, and at the worst will result in the disappearance of most reef fish," said Bruce Purdy, a veteran dive operator who has helped the marine conservation group REEF with expeditions tracking the invasion.

Purdy said he has been stung several times while rounding up lionfish — once badly.

"It was so painful, it made me want to cut my own hand off," he said.

Researchers believe lionfish were introduced into the Atlantic in 1992, when Hurricane Andrew shattered a private aquarium and six of them spilled into Miami's Biscayne Bay, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Biologists think the fish released floating sacs of eggs that rode the Gulf Stream north along the U.S. coast, leading to colonization of deep reefs off North Carolina and Bermuda. Lionfish have even been spotted as far north as Rhode Island in summer months, NOAA said.

They are not aggressive toward humans, and their sting is not fatal. There are no estimates so far of tourists who have been stung. But marine officials say swimmers will be more at risk as the venomous species overtakes tropical waters along popular Caribbean beaches.

The slow-moving fish, which measures about 18 inches, is easy to snare, though lionfish swim too deep for divers to catch in nets — a common method of dealing with invasive species.

Looking for lionfish predator
So researchers are scrambling to figure out what will eat the menacing beauties in their new Caribbean home, experimenting with predators such as sharks, moray eels — and even humans.

Adventurous eaters describe the taste of lionfish fillets as resembling halibut. But so far, they are a tough sell. Hungry sharks typically veer abruptly when researchers try to hand-feed them a lionfish.

"We have gotten (sharks) to successfully eat a lionfish, but it has been a lot of work. Most of our attempts with the moray eel have been unsuccessful," said Andy Dehart of the National Aquarium in Washington, who is working with REEF in the Bahamas.

One predator that will eat lionfish is grouper, which are rare in the lionfish's natural Southeast-Asian habitat. Scientists are pinning long-range hopes on the establishment of new ocean reserves to protect grouper and other lionfish predators from overfishing.

Hixon said there is some evidence that lionfish have not invaded reefs of the fully protected Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, a 176-square-mile reserve southeast of Nassau. But unprotected locations in the vast archipelago are more vulnerable.

Containing the spread of the lionfish is an uphill fight. As lionfish colonize more territory in the Caribbean, they feed on grazing fish that keep seaweed from overwhelming coral reefs already buffeted by climate change, pollution and other environmental pressures.

Dehart said: "If we start losing these smaller reef fish as food to the lionfish ... we could be in a whirlwind for bad things coming to the reef ecosystem."

I found this article on a we page called The Windy Citizen. http://windycitizen.com/news/elkgrove/2008/08/12/diversdiscoverhistoryinlakemichiganwaters

Alyssa Wells

by Alyssa Wells

Published August 12, 2008 - 12:00 AM

Most people don’t expect to have any scuba diving experience in Lake Michigan, let alone an exciting one. While diving is usually synonymous with warm, turquoise water and dazzling marine life, scuba divers in the Great Lakes region guard a well-preserved secret.

“If you’re diving and you want to see fish you have to go to the tropics,” says Cris Kohl, author of eleven books on the Great Lakes. “But if you want to see the best preserved shipwrecks in the world you have to dive here, because you sure won’t see them in saltwater.”

Our lakes boast shipwrecks galore, from smaller tugboats to schooners resting less than one hundred feet below the surface, a treat for adventurous divers willing to tolerate the cold. Although the water temperature is a deterrent for many potential and seasoned divers, it prevents the deterioration of the sunken boats, products of the Great Lakes’ extensive maritime history.

“There are shipwrecks in the Great Lakes that are almost entirely intact to the point that you can stick your hand into the cargo hold and come up with grain if they were shipping corn or flour,” said Peggy Kurpinski, owner of Adventures in Diving in Holland, Mich.

Despite the many locations to obtain scuba diving certification in the region, most new divers postpone their first dive until they can travel to more tropical climates. However, regional dive shop owners think that the lakes are vastly underrated and new divers often miss out on the opportunity to explore the shipwrecks, remnants of history frozen in time.

“It’s eerie to see something that you’re not supposed to see underwater and strange seeing something so out of context,” said Ralph Naruscewicz, an owner of D.D. Dive Shop in Glenview. “But it’s nice because you swim in some of the ships where you have big openings so you get to see into the compartments. That’s pretty unique.”

Kurpinski said local instructors enjoy taking new divers onto the wrecks because of the sense of wonderment that the divers feel when they realize there is an entire hidden world below the surface of the lake.

“I have newly certified people go out and do a dive and they don’t think they’re going to see anything,” he said. “But they see the wreck, they see the artifact, they get back on the boat, and you can’t stop them from talking for the next half an hour because it is the most thrilling experience. And it’s awesome.”

The lure of scuba diving is the thrill, going to the last place on the planet that hasn’t been thoroughly explored.

“Shipwreck divers like the drama, the history, the exploration of a different world,” says Kohl, whose books include Shipwreck Tales of the Great Lakes and The Great Lakes Diving Guide. “They look at the ship’s wheel and they imagine the helmsman struggling hard to save the ship in a storm before it sank. They ask themselves, ‘Who last walked on these decks? Did they survive? What happened to them?’”

Divers interested in the history of the vessels have been known to take souvenirs with them. While each state bordering the lakes made it illegal to remove things from the wrecks, it’s hard for many to pass up the opportunity. Kurpinski has a collection of bottles that would make antique stores jealous, including a Coca-Cola bottle that is over one hundred years old.

“I have two halves of a plate that was being shipped to Marshall Fields,” says Lee Skinner, an avid diver from Elk Grove Village with over 1,000 dives under his wetsuit.

Skinner and his wife Nancy have been diving for 26 years, traveling to dive sights across the globe like Phuket, Thailand and Cozumel, Mexico. While her husband enjoys the more adventurous aspects of diving, Nancy likes the serenity that she finds in the water.

“It’s so peaceful,” she said. “I find diving extremely relaxing and restful. When you go diving and you jump in the water for the first time it’s like going home. It’s so beautiful there.”

Open Water Class August 2 & 3, 2008

Congradulatons to our newest Open Water Divers: Leslie Armstrong, Jeff Jensen, Suchi Patel, Surrender Sara, Andre Lareau, Mike Skonie, Jim and Jordan Habel, Donna and Dwight Priest, and Mike Wallenberg.

Dive Master Candidate Mark "Snap" Whitten.

Newsletter August 7, 2008

The Dive Center is now open Monday through Friday 2 PM to 8 PM and Saturday 11 AM to 5 PM

On August 10 we will have a fun dive and picnic at Haig Quarry. Bret Byers will do a short intro to Cavern Diving techniques presentation.

Sea Lions will be going to Gilboa Quarry in Ohio August 23 and 24. The cost of the trip is $60 plus transportation. You can drive yourself or join us in the van and share the cost of fuel. We will be holding an Advanced Open Water course for anyone interested.

Brett will teach a full Cavern Class in October with dives in Rubidoux Spring in Missouri. This involves a day at the quarry and a weekend in Missouri. Look for details on our blog and newsletter shortly. The Classroom will be held at the dive center on October 10, 2008. There will be a lake session on October 12 and the cavern dives will be November 7 through 9. To enroll you must be at least 18 years old and you will need a seven foot hose on your primary second stage regulator, two lights a primary that can be used with a reel and a back up. The cost is $195 plus the cost of hotel in Missouri. Sign up early.

Sea Lions Dive Center has made special arrangements with Nekton Diving Cruises. We will be visiting St Croix the on the live-aboard the Nekton Rorqual on August 8, 2009. The posted cost of the cruise is $1,695. With a $300 reservation by August 18, 2008 your price will be only $1,095 plus transfers, fuel surcharge and port fees (about $200.)
The $600 discount is only good until August 18, 2003 when the price will go up. Book now! There are only ten spots at this price.

There will be a clean up dive at Burnham Harbor on September 20, 2008. Divers will clean up the harbor and be treated to lunch and a Tee shirt. Click Here for Details.

Sea Lions will return to the wreck diving in North Carolina September 31 through October 5, 2008. We will do three days of three tank diving – two Nitrox and one on air each day. Cost for diving, hotel, breakfast and lunch each day is $980. Transportation is available.

Over Thanksgiving weekend we will again visit Key Largo. Call for details.


Links St Croix
Review of ScubaPro Regulators

The Lady Elgin

I found this article on the Lady Elgin. It has a lot of good info on the wreck.


Descendant of Lady Elgin victims dives to wreck site in Illinois

By MEG JONES
mjones@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Aug. 9, 2008

Winnetka, Ill. - Jacob Cook never forgot the death screams.

All around him, as he fought to stay afloat in a turbulent Lake Michigan, fellow passengers struggled to stay alive. His mother and sister were among them.

The Stockbridge, Wis., man, then 19, couldn’t see in the dark as the paddlewheel steamer he had boarded a short time earlier for the trip from Chicago to Milwaukee broke apart and slipped beneath the surface. Lightning flashed, illuminating the horrible scene. But he never saw his mother again, and the next time he saw his 24-year-old sister Elizabeth was when he claimed her body.

Last week, Sharon Cook thought of her relatives’ last moments as she swam down to the wreck of the Lady Elgin, which now lies in several pieces a few miles off the shore of this northern Chicago suburb.

“The notion of swimming over where my relatives might have walked is exciting,” said Sharon Cook, 56, who lives in Bay View.

All shipwrecks have stories — of those who lived, of those who died, of heroism, of blame.

But perhaps more than most of the hundreds of ships that lie in the underwater graveyard of the Great Lakes, the story of the Lady Elgin is particularly tragic.

“I would call it the Titanic of the Great Lakes,” said maritime historian Brendon Baillod.

Though it sank more than half a century before the Titanic, the Lady Elgin has been linked with the more famous ship because it, too, suffered a tremendous loss of life. There was no passenger manifest, so the exact number of victims is not known, though contemporary accounts estimate the number on board at 600 to 700. A mass grave in Winnetka became the resting place for 80 unclaimed victims.

Many on board were Milwaukeeans, mostly from the city’s Third Ward Irish community. They had chartered the vessel for the trip to Chicago on Sept. 7, 1860, to see presidential candidate Stephen Douglas just two months before he would lose to Abraham Lincoln.

The Lady Elgin will be featured in an exhibit of Titanic artifacts at the Milwaukee Public Museum. The Titanic show, one of six touring exhibits of artifacts retrieved from the doomed passenger liner, is scheduled to be on display at the Milwaukee museum Oct. 10 through May 25, 2009.

The Milwaukee Public Museum organized a scuba diving expedition to the Lady Elgin last week with photographers shooting pictures and video that will be part of the Titanic exhibit in Milwaukee. Most museums hosting the touring Titanic exhibit have featured a tie-in to their communities.

“We were brainstorming ideas because virtually every museum that’s had the Titanic had some local angle,” said Carter Lupton, vice president of museum programs, aboard a dive boat shortly after exploring the Lady Elgin.

Lupton said the Milwaukee Public Museum will also include Wisconsin connections to Titanic passengers and the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Civil War politics

Lupton, Sharon Cook and others pulled on wet suits, fins, masks and air tanks to swim down to the bow section where two large iron anchors landed on the sandy bottom, entwined in front of long sections of the wooden hull. The windlass, which would have pulled up the anchors, ended up next to the planks, not far from a portion of the hull that looks like a skeleton with ribs sticking up in the green water.

The shipwreck was discovered in 1989 by Harry Zych, who was awarded ownership a decade later after a long legal battle.

Aside from the number of deaths, the Lady Elgin is significant in maritime history because of its role in Civil War politics.

“The interesting thing about the Lady Elgin is it happened in September 1860, when a lot of the precursor events to the Civil War were unfolding,” said Baillod, president of the Wisconsin Underwater Archaeological Association.

In 1860 many Wisconsinites were against slavery and Gov. Alexander Randall, a staunch abolitionist, talked actively about seceding from the Union unless the federal government outlawed slavery. Militia companies were asked whether they would support the state or the federal government if Wisconsin seceded. In Milwaukee, the Irish Union Guard sided with the Union.

That prompted state officials to disarm the Union Guard and revoke the commission of the unit’s commander. However, the Irish Union Guard refused to disband and instead chartered the Lady Elgin for a cruise to Chicago to raise money to re-arm, attend a Democratic rally and listen to Douglas’ speech. On the return trip to Milwaukee, the Irish group was joined by many other passengers who had been stranded when fog delayed other departures.

A personal connection

Sharon Cook, a member of the Milwaukee Public Museum board, suggested including the Lady Elgin in the exhibit, along with a dive to the wreck site. For her, the half-hour dive was personal. When the Lady Elgin died in the early morning hours of Sept. 8, 1860, shortly after being rammed by a schooner, her great-great-grandmother Jane Cook and great-aunt Elizabeth Cook died, too.

The Cook family was returning to Wisconsin from Canada after selling property and a business. The proceeds — almost $12,000 in gold — were to be used for down payments on farms near Stockbridge for four of Jane Cook’s sons. Her body and the gold sewn into her clothing were never found. Less than a year later, Jane Cook’s sons, including Jacob, were fighting on the Union side in the Civil War.

Before she jumped into Lake Michigan to descend to the Lady Elgin, Sharon Cook read letters written by Jacob Cook — who lived until Christmas Day 1917 — describing the awful night. In a letter dated Sept. 13, 1860, he described the happy crowd on board, which sang and danced to a brass band.

Then the Lady Elgin was struck by the schooner Augusta.

Jacob Cook and his family made their way to the deck.

“Mother and sister kissed me and said we would all be lost. I told them to have courage and we would all be saved. I tried to encourage them all I could. I got two planks and showed them how to use them. In ten minutes after we got on top of the boat, it went down. O! my God I shall never forget it! Wen it went down I jumped on some little boards. They were not able to hold me up. I went down. Wen I came up I got hold of something and got on to it.

“It was so dark and we could not see — only when there came a flash of lightning. I hollered as soon as I could for them to hold on until I could get to them, but I got no answers. Only people around me struggling to death in the waves. O! them death screams! Nobody knows what it was except those that were there. O! Lord deliver me from another such time. I seen no more of my dear mother and sister.”

Sharon Cook learned to scuba dive so she could see the wreck of the Lady Elgin, which now lies in several sections spread out across a mile in 50 feet of water.

“Where it really hit me was when I went to see ‘Titanic,’ and the last scene with them bobbing in the cold water,” said Cook, who is program director for Alliance for the Great Lakes. “I’m thinking that’s what my relatives would have been experiencing.”

Photo/Chris Winters

Photo/Chris Winters, Copyright 2008

Harry Zych

Burnham Harbor Clean Up Dive

Lake Wazee

We found this info on Lake Wazee in Wisconsin. Visibility is usually excellent but you need to watch your depth.

In Travel & Visitors Guide

Go deep in Wazee Lake

The depth of Lake Wazee make it a scuba diver's paradise.

By Gregg Hoffmann Special to OnMilwaukee.com E-mail author More articles by Gregg Hoffmann

Published Aug. 3, 2008 at 5:04 a.m.

Tags: lake wazee, green lake, quarry lake

If you want to say you've gone swimming in the deepest lake in Wisconsin, take a dive into Wazee Lake in Jackson County.

Wazee Lake, east of Black River Falls, is 355 feet in its deepest hole. That's more than 100 feet deeper than Green Lake. Of course, the folks near Green Lake will argue that their lake is a natural waterway while Wazee is a restored quarry.

Scuba divers and others don't really care about that distinction. Most will tell you that Wazee is the deepest and clearest lake in the state, and they love it.

The name Wazee means "tall pine" in the Ho-Chunk language. You can see where the name fits the lake and recreation area around it, since pine trees are plentiful. The Black River State Forest, in fact, is near Wazee and offers a variety of hiking and other trails.

Wazee was formed artificially, after being used as a quarry for taconite mining between the mid-1960s through April 1983. The quarry produced about 850,000 tons of taconite pellets each year.

The mine closed in 1983 as a result of a crash of the domestic steel markets in the United States. When the mine was in operation, pumps removed about 800 gallons of water per minute from the quarry. Once these pumps were shut down, the quarry began filling with water.

The lake, now part of a county park, is a prime scuba diving destination because of its deep, clear water. Visibility averages between 30 and 40 feet during the summer months.

There are also visible remains of mining operations underwater, such as roadways used for hauling equipment. Some features have been added to the lake, such as underwater platforms for training divers and fish cribs to improve habitat for the fish. Fish species within the lake include rainbow, brook and brown trout, bluegills, suckers, catfish, walleye, warmouth and smallmouth bass.

Because of the depth, Wazee's water is cold. It runs from approximately 70 degrees surface temperature to 40 degrees below the thermocline. The thermocline depth varies during summer, but averages about 30 feet.

Divers who venture to greater depths will encounter a second thermocline at approximately 60 feet where the temperature drops to a chilly 34 degrees. Use of a quality dry suit (with proper training) is recommended for deep diving in the lake.

If that isn't cool enough for you, ice diving has become very popular at Wazee.

Other activities exist in the rec area for additional enjoyment. Many miles of hiking and gravel surfaced bicycle trails wind through a mosaic of prairie and forests. Several scenic overlooks are currently under construction as well as improved picnic and sanitary facilities. Construction of a large beach and boat launch complex was completed in 1996.

Wazee is not the only popular quarry lake in the state. Red Granite Quarry Lake in Waushara County is listed as the third deepest lake in Wisconsin with a maximum depth of 163 feet.

Discovery of red granite at the central Wisconsin hamlet of Sand Prairie in the 1880s sparked a mining boom that brought skilled stonecutters from Europe to settle the area. Granite paving blocks from the quarry were used in streets as far away as Chicago.

When concrete and asphalt became the popular choice for paving, the site closed in the 1920s. Now filled with a 7-acre lake, the quarry was designated a Red Granite village park in 1995, and is used by scuba instructors for deep-water diving certification and by tourists and residents for other recreational activities.

Lohrville Quarry Park, also in Waushara County, is listed as the fifth deepest lake in the state at 120 feet. It took offers great diving, swimming and other recreation. Brillion in Calumet County also is home to a quarry lake.

Closer to Milwaukee, you can find Quarry Lake Park in Racine. Again, scuba divers use this lake and swimmers and sun bathers also love the expansive multi-level terraced beach.

Once a limestone quarry, this park has been transformed into one of the finest outdoor swimming and beach facility in the area. Quarry Lake park features an 18-acre lake, picnic areas with grills, a large air-conditioned beach house with changing rooms, lockers, concessions, lavatories and showers.

Scuba divers must be certified and pay a registration fee to enter and explore the depths of the Quarry Lake. A daily entrance fee is charged during the swimming season.

Sheboygan Quarry Lake, an 18-acre lake with depth of about 45 feet also is popular with divers. Harrington Beach State Park, which has been featured in OnMilwaukee.com before, has a quarry lake as well as a wonderful Lake Michigan beach.

There are other quarry lakes around the state. You can find out more about them at www.dnr.state.wi.us.

Only four spots remain on the August 17th charter to dive the wreck of the Straits of Mackinaw from Burnham Harbor. Call the dive shop to reserve your spot. This is a two tank dive for $95. Price does not include equipment.

Only 19 days remain to get our special $1,095 pricing on the live aboard the Nekton Rorqual when we visit St. Croix in August of 2009.

Study up on your Fresh Water Fish ID at our Cold Water Fish ID site.

High pressure tanks including SCUBA tanks must be visually inspected annually and must be hydro tested every five years. This is not a Sea Lions Dive Center requirement it is required by law. We had a customer in the dive shop recently who insisted we fill his tank without a current visual. When we refused he became quite vocal and said that we were trying to cheat him and began making other abusive and loud remarks regarding our prices. He said he could buy dive gear for half our prices at a local sporting goods store and on the Internet. We asked him to leave and his parting comment was “an informed customer is your worst enemy.”
In fact a “misinformed customer is our worst enemy.” We do our best to offer products and services at competitive prices. The sporting goods store – who has since discontinued selling dive gear – sold only low end regulators to customers only interested in price. They offered no expertise, no help selecting gear, no service and no airfills. We had a customer bring in one of these “bargain regulators.” The reg was in pieces and the sporting goods store could not even assemble the parts.
Regarding the Intent, dive store employees, including those of us at Sea Lions get very defensive when people talk about buying gear on the Internet. The internet sites skim the cream and offer the highest margin items at a discount but do not offer the lower margin items such as service and air fills.
We know you look at the Internet… so do we. Buying dive gear on the Internet is a crap shoot. Many times you will purchase the gear and it will work out for you. But when it goes bad it can go real bad. Many of the Internet sites are not authorized dealers. We sell Uwtech Computer in part because they we feel they have the best warrantee in the industry. If you buy Uwatech or ScubaPro on the Internet you do not get that warrantee no matter who you buy it from.
If you find that you would like to support our effort to offer local services but cannot resist the Internet please visit our dive gear site. You will find helpful articles on purchasing dive gear and you will also find links to Internet sites that sell dive gear. If you enter these sites through the link on our web page when you purchase we will receive a small commission but it will not increase your cost.
I apologize for the length of this rant but it is a sensitive and important issue.

Have fun and come back safe.

Tom

Other Links
Nekton Trip
Best Ten Dives in the Chicagoland Area
Cold Water Fish Identification