April 2011
A PUBLICATION OF THE COLUMBUS SEA NAGS HTTP://WWW.SEANAGS.COM
In This Issue
General Meeting Highlights
Calendar
Executive Meeting Highlights
Dive Reports
Environmental News
Log Book
Parting Shots
p. 2
p. 3
p. 3
p. 3
p. 6
p. 7
p. 7
Blowing Bubbles
Story by Rob; Photos by Andy, Rob & Tami
Scuba Fest 2011 was not to be missed by
anyone interested in sunken treasure nearly
400 years old. Sean Fisher, grandson of world
famous treasure hunter Mel Fisher, was on
hand to regale us with the story of the
discovery of the richest treasure ship ever
found, Nuestra Señora de Atocha, and the
Santa Margarita, as well as allow those of us
present to wear or hold major treasure artifacts
from the find for a few precious moments. It
was quite an opportunity for those of us who
have held dreams of discovering such valuable
loot in our imaginations since childhood.
The emerald!
Sean Fisher, Sylvia Ballinger, Andy Dennis
Sean Fisher, Rob, Tami Thompson
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April 2011
A PUBLICATION OF THE COLUMBUS SEA NAGS HTTP://WWW.SEANAGS.COM
Beyond the thrills of treasure, there were many
wonderful sessions presented by well-known
local divers, as well as those from the Great
Lakes region. Sue Smith shared her video and
experiences as a member of the expedition
that found and first dove on the recently
discovered L.R. Doty shipwreck. It lies in 315
feet of water in northwestern Lake Michigan.
Tony Gramer shared footage of his dives on
famous wrecks in the Straits of Mackinaw
before and after the zebra mussel invasion,
plus some wonderful video imagery of his dive
experiences in Wakatobi. Rudy Whitworth
presented his incredible photographs of
Lembeh and the Layang Layang Atoll. Finally,
our own Mark Thomas gave a presentation on
ice diving and took home first place in the
freshwater photo competition with his entry,
Cold Water Space.
Special thanks to Marty Bailey, Jim
Bergner, Karen Jesko, Glenn Mitchell, and,
Tami Thompson, all of whom contributed to
our table display and presence in various and
important ways. We looked professional!
All in all, it was a great weekend of treasure
and excitement. Time to go diving everyone!
Rob
General Meeting Minutes
By Donn Ellerbrock
Present March 3: Marty Bailey, Jim Bergner,
Adam Biehl, Debbie Maxson, Mike Burton,
Andy Dennis, Donn Ellerbrock, Karen Jesko,
Steve Locsey, Glenn Mitchell, Steve and
Maggie Rantz, Rob Robison, Laurel Sheppard,
Tami Thompson
Present Feb 3 Meeting (missing from last month’s
newsletter): Rob Robison, Richard Hand, Andy Dennis,
Terry Wooten, Joan Wooten, Glenn Mitchell, Marty
Bailey, Mike Burton, Tammy Thompson, Laurel
Sheppard, Ryan Parkevich, Donn Ellerbrock.
March Program: Debbie Maxson reported
that the annual fall Bonaire trip would be
October 1-10. Several club members have
S’NAG-A-NEWS
participated for a number of years and plan to
take part again this year. For those interested,
contact
Debbie
Maxson
at
[email protected]. She advised potential
participants to begin making plans. Then,
Debbie shared a well-received video, filmed by
her husband, Rod, on the October trip to
Bonaire she, her husband Rod, Donn
Ellerbrock, Andrea Caito, Glenn Mitchell,
and several others made.
Member Raffle and 50/50
Adam Biehl won the 50-50 Raffle. The winners
of the books in the members drawing were:
Debbie Maxson, Mike Burton, Glenn, Adam,
Maggie Rantz, Marty, and (?). (About half of
the attendees).
Treasurer’s Report
Marty gave the Treasurer’s report. The club is
solvent, and he is still awaiting payment of
2011 dues from a number of people.
Additional Announcements
• 2011 Club membership dues are $20.00
2011 Ohio Council dues are $9.00.
• Club logo patches and decals are available
to new club members a apart of their
membership dues. Returning members can
purchase extra decals/stickers at a cost of
$0.25 each and extra patches at a$2.00
each.
• Facebook: You can find the Club Facebook
forum
by
going
to:
http://engb.facebook.com/pages/Columbus-Sea-NagsSCUBA-Divers-/289276535926?v=wall, thanks
to
Andy Dennis.
WINTER DIVING, 2011
Circleville Twin Quarries
(http://divecircleville.com/index.php?option=com_content
&view=article&id=46&Itemid=27)
Cost = $12
Open year round. The quarry is open when the store is
closed. Please complete the liability release at the first
shelter house and deposit $12.00 in the box and dive.
Please call or email in advance when you plan to dive.
We will ensure the gate is unlocked. If you have
additional questions - please email or call.
Gilboa (http://divegilboa.com/)
Cost = $21
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April 2011
A PUBLICATION OF THE COLUMBUS SEA NAGS HTTP://WWW.SEANAGS.COM
December 1, 2010 - March 31, 2011
Winter hours = the first and third weekends of the month
and will be open from 9am to 3pm.
If the weather is bad, please call the quarry ahead of time
to make sure it is open.
Lakeview RV Park (http://www.rvatlakeview.com/)
Open year round. Cost = $10.
Portage (http://www.portagequarry.com)
Reopens Memorial Day, 2011, earlier by appointment:
[email protected]
White Star (http://www.whitestarquarry.com/)
Cost = $15
November - December 2010
Quarry Open every day for Diving 8am - Dusk - There
are no concessions open November or December
without prior arrangements.
January - March 2011
February 5 - 6 - Weekend Ice Diving
February 12 - 13 - Weekend Ice Diving
March 5 - Great Lakes Shipwreck Festival, Ann
Arbor, MI
March 12 -13 - Weekend Ice Diving
ScubaFest in Columbus, Ohio - March 19 - 20
March 27 - Public Safety Day at White Star
April 2011
Quarry resumes Regular Diving Hours April 1
Quarry Open every day for Diving 8am - Dusk Through
December 31
Calendar of Upcoming Events
2011
Apr
7 Club General Meeting; 8:00PM; Planks: Stone Lab, Fools
Gold, or wreck video
23 PaddlePalooza, Ohio Expo Center
30 MAST dinner
May
1 MAST workshop
5 Club General Meeting; 8:00PM; Planks, Stone Lab, Fools
Gold, or wreck video
28 Club dive, White Star Quarry; www.whitestarquarry.com
June
2 Club General Meeting; 8:00PM; Planks; Slide show on Isla
Majors, Mexico, by Rob
11 Corn roast, gear swap, membership drive, and dive
Circleville Twin Q
July
7 Club General Meeting; 8:00PM; Planks, TBA
16 Club dive @ Portage Quarry
16-17 DAN BBQ, Portage Quarry; www.portagequarry.com
Aug
4 Club General Meeting; 8:00PM; Planks, Social, no
program
13-14 Legends of Diving, Portage Quarry
Sep
1 Club General Meeting; 8:00PM; Planks, summer dive
stories from members
Oct
S’NAG-A-NEWS
6 Club General Meeting; 8:00PM; Planks. Nominations for
club officers
Nov
3 Club General Meeting; 8:00PM; Plank. Elections
19- Shipwrecks & Scuba
Dec
1 Club General Meeting; 8:00PM; Planks
3 Annual Banquet/Christmas Party, Mary Kelley’s
Restaurant
Executive Meeting Highlights
@ Marty’s 3-17-11. Thanks Marty & Maggie!
Present: Marty B, Jim B, Donn E, Glenn M,
Rob R, John Skobel
• Marty has invited Stone Lab to talk at the
April 7 meeting and the club will consider
participation in Lab’s volunteer weekend
April 15-17.
• PaddlePalooza has given the club a
complimentary table at their convention,
April 22-3 at the Ohio Expo Center
• See the calendar for important dates for
club dives this summer: May 28, June 11,
and July 16. We’ll have the club banner
out and more. Stay tuned for updates.
Dive Reports
Please send dive reports to
<[email protected]>
Spasms
Steve Locsey forgot his rock boots (a selfreported spasm) when completing his solo
certification at Lancaster.
Oral
By Donn Ellerbrock
Steve Locsey reported that he had been cave
diving in Florida in early March. Diving the
Peacock and Ginnie Systems, he had
completed the necessary dives to qualify as a
full cave diver. Also in March, he had
conducted dives in Lancaster and obtained his
solo diver certification.
In performing his dives in the 38° waters of
Lancaster, he had no difficulties except for the
very cold feet occasioned by having to dive
without his forgotten rock boots (a selfreported spasm).
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April 2011
A PUBLICATION OF THE COLUMBUS SEA NAGS HTTP://WWW.SEANAGS.COM
Andy Dennis reported that Ryan Parkevich,
Jeff Bolton, and he spent a week in Florida
diving the Madison Blue and Peacock Systems
and a relatively new river cave system, which
was characterized by contrasting dark and
cold river water and clear 70° cave water. The
river cave also had a different profile from that
usually found in that area, with a tight entrance
leading to an expanding and deeper depth,
plus a continuation at the deeper depth.
Andy also reported on a recent death in the
cave diving community.
Mike Burton related that he and Steve B.
had successfully completed an equipment
maintenance certification course last month
with Bill Margiotta at Underwater Connection.
He said that it was very informative.
Laurel Sheppard reported that she had been
diving during February as part of the
Columbus Zoo diving program, maintaining the
Zoo’s aquariums. For those interested, contact
her at: < [email protected]>
Glenn Mitchell reported on the upcoming
League of Ohio Sportsmen’s’ Convention. It
will have exhibitors, feature a variety of
seminars, and some actual hands-on
programs; for example, one on hydroplane
rescue, among others. For details, contact him
at: <[email protected]>
Written
Lancaster 2-27-11
For the first dive of the year at Lancaster, it
was sunny and the air temperature was rising.
When we entered the water the air was in the
40s. We exited the water with the air in the mid
50s. Nice! The water itself was a cold 40°F.
John Skobel, a friend of his named Harold,
and I met at the Lancaster site at 9:30 AM,
only to find Marty Bailey, Andy Dennis, and
Dave Fleming suited up, in the water, and on
the verge of taking the plunge. They were half
way through their dive, when we finally
S’NAG-A-NEWS
finished donning our own gear and headed for
the water.
Mary & Dave
John & Harold getting ready
Tea anyone?
Harold experienced weight problems—too
light--immediately and had to abandon the dive
early. John and I soldiered on out to the
airplane. With the addition of new branching
lines, diving Lancaster can be confusing. John
wasn’t as familiar with them as I, so when I
indicated a jog to the right, he missed it and
headed left. Fortunately, we surfaced, found
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April 2011
A PUBLICATION OF THE COLUMBUS SEA NAGS HTTP://WWW.SEANAGS.COM
each other, righted ourselves, and headed
back down. We reached the twin Beech and
found that the skeleton had been given a
ceramic mug to sip tea in its cold loneliness.
The trip back to the entry point proved
uneventful. Vis was inconsistently better than
Circleville’s last week, but not by much. It was
still somewhat cloudy at 25-30’. Animal life
was virtually non-existent, with only a few
small fry darting in and about the bottom
growth to keep us entertained. As the water
warms, the animal life should pick up. I can’t
wait!
Circleville, 3-13, 3-20
Randy Beck @ Jeep
Our dives did not disappoint. Randy spotted
one of the catfish on the bottom, half way
between the flatbed and the lady of the tub.
Had he not been with me, I would have missed
the big fish. Toward the end of the dive, we
found the skeleton of a completely chewed
catfish. In the accompanying photo you can
Big catfish
Randy Beck, LandSharks president, and I met
up at Circleville on the 13 and 20th of March to
gauge
the
underwater
conditions
at
Circleville’s south quarry. Visibility was a
murky 7 – 10 feet, with H20 temperature rising
from 42° to 44°F on successive weekends.
Our bottom time increased from 45 minutes to
50 – 51 minutes, respectively, in concert with
the slowly warming temperature. Randy, who
usually avoids the coldest temperatures and
low visibility, couldn’t wait to get started this
year, egged on by the rising air temperatures.
S’NAG-A-NEWS
Catfish skeleton
see the bones and a U-shaped item, which is
the lower jaw of the animal. Its lip did not make
the photo but was found just beyond the
cadaver. The following week we returned to
check out the skeleton and the lips were gone.
I guess those loose lips will not be able to tell
any more tales (Drum roll, please!).
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April 2011
A PUBLICATION OF THE COLUMBUS SEA NAGS HTTP://WWW.SEANAGS.COM
3-27
definitely upon us.
Let’s dive into it.
Rob
Environment
1,000th sea turtle freed at Canaveral
National Seashore
SeaWorld began rehab program in 1980
10:16 PM, Mar. 11, 2011
John Skobel and I checked out the north
quarry today. Unlike the south quarry, where a
squadron of bluegill and increasing fish activity
followed us, the lone half lb. bass and scant
few other fish were lethargic and hid out of
sight for the vast majority of the dive. Water
temperature was 45°-46°F and dive duration
was 46 minutes, due to the fact that John
forgot his dive socks and we both were getting
cold. Though warming up, 46°F H20 is still
plenty nippy.
CANAVERAL NATIONAL SEASHORE —
With one hand cupped in the other behind her
back, Julia Moore stood in the surf and looked
longingly as a loggerhead turtle swam off
freely into the ocean at Canaveral National
Seashore.
"It's a little bittersweet," Moore, a senior
aquarist at SeaWorld Orlando, said of the
moment. "It's the best feeling to be able to
return
them."
The 102-pound loggerhead was the 1,000th
rescued sea turtle SeaWorld has rehabilitated
and released since it began its rescue program
in 1980. Since then, veterinarians and turtle
experts at the park in Orlando have cared for
more
than
1,530
sea
turtles.
Source:
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201103120108
/NEWS01/103120309
Time to get wet everyone or at least haul your
gear out of storage and get ready. Warming
trends are in the offing. Dive season is
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April 2011
A PUBLICATION OF THE COLUMBUS SEA NAGS HTTP://WWW.SEANAGS.COM
Log Book
Shipwreck divers find antique gold chain
off Fla.
KEY WEST,
Fla.
–
Shipwreck
experts
are
evaluating a
centuries-old
40-inch gold
chain plucked
from the seafloor while searching for a 17thcentury sunken Spanish galleon off the Florida
Keys.
The piece is tentatively valued at about
$250,000. It is believed to be from the Nuestra
Señora de Atocha, which sank during a 1622
hurricane. It was found Wednesday by divers
from Mel Fisher's Treasures about 35 miles
west of Key West.
The chain has 55 links, an enameled gold
cross and a two-sided engraved religious
medallion featuring the Virgin Mary and a
chalice.
In 1985, the Fisher crew recovered more than
$450 million in artifacts and treasure from the
Atocha shipwreck, but part of the ship has not
been found.
Mmmm...Shark,' Says Killer Whale
deep, offshore waters of the northeast Pacific chow
down on the sluggish deep-sea Pacific sleeper
shark. But dining on shark delicacies comes at a
price.
The denticles, tough teeth-like structures
embedded in the shark's skin, grind down the
whale's teeth. Some
older whales have
been found with their
teeth ground down to
the gums, according
to John Ford of the
Pacific
Biological
Station in Nanaimo,
British Columbia, and
his team or researchers. Their research was
published recently in the journal Aquatic Biology.
"It may be that the young whales have to do most
of the work," Ford told the journal Nature. "The
older ones are probably just gumming away at the
liver."
Source:
http://us.mg1.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.gx=1&.rand=ao4deh7vo2kso
Parting Shots and Thoughts
Source:http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/pets/galleries/ani
mal_kingdom_oddities/animal_kingdom_oddities.html
Lobster gold!
Analysis by Tim Wall
Tue Jan 25, 2011 04:42 PM ET
Like a child eating too many jawbreaker candies,
some orcas damage their teeth by eating crunchy,
abrasive food.
But they aren't
eating candy,
they
are
eating sharks.
The
orcas
(Orcinus
orca), or killer
whales, in the
S’NAG-A-NEWS
Let’s dive into it, gang!
Rob
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April 2011
AD Rates
S’Nag-A-News monthly advertising rates are as follows:
Business Card $4.00
1/4 Page $10.00
1/2 Page $20.00
Full Page $30.00
Club members receive a 10% discount on advertising
rates. Non-members receive a 10% discount for three
months paid in advance.
OFFICERS 2011
President & Newsletter Editor
Rob Robison
614-798-1206
[email protected]
Vice President
Jim Bergner
614-937-4339
[email protected]
Treasurer
Marty Bailey
614-866-9943
[email protected]
Acting Secretary
Donn Ellerbrock
614-294-7540
[email protected]
NEXT MEETING
Plank’s Café, 8:00 p.m., Thursday, April 7 program
features a talk OSU’s Sea Grant Program and Great
Lakes Research Station, Stone Lab@ Put-In-Bay on
Lake Erie by Eugene Braig, the program’s assistant
director.
The Columbus Sea Nags
c/o Rob Robison
6803 Maplebrook Lane
Columbus, Ohio 43235
S’NAG-A-NEWS
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