5/10/12

Bahamas Expedition: Finding the mooring

Chris, a regular staff diver in the Giant Ocean Tank, is on an Aquarium expedition to the Bahamas. Stay tuned for stories from the turquoise blue waters of Caribbean, complete with pictures, conservation notes and a taste of life on board a working boat.

Besides the deep dive to 85 feet to find the sargassum triggerfish (sorry, my camera couldn't go that deep), the most fun thing I have done on this trip is jump off the bow in mask and fins to find the mooring near the shipwreck Sapona.

 Waiting for Captain Lou's signal

 Overboard I go

 Getting situated before I begin looking

Searching the sea floor 15 feet below

Normally moorings have a buoy attached to them, so that freediving down to bring up the line isn't necessary. There were moorings to use here at the Sapona, but the Coral Reef II is too big and hence has to keep its distance to avoid swinging into it due to surface currents.
Once moored, we enjoyed a great dive at this site, exploring the outer perimeter of the Sapona. It was here that I saw a beautiful nurse shark about 6 feet long.

-Chris


[Read previous posts about diving at the Sapona on this blog. Aquarium President and CEO Bud Ris visited the site in 2008, Emily shares some amazing images here, Nick reports on a night dive at the wreck here and teen diver Lee shares his reports on it here.]

Facebook Comments

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Comments left in this section do not represent the views of the New England Aquarium. Due to the large volume of questions received, staff cannot respond to individual comments but will consider them when planning future blog posts.