My time in Biscayne National Park began with some rocky travel. First I had to return from Yellowstone National Park, which was an adventure in and of itself. Brett, Koza and I dropped off Brian Skerry in Jackson Hole to catch his flight, and then we made the nine-hour drive back to Denver. By the time we stopped at the office to switch out my drysuit for my wetsuit it was already almost midnight! I got a few hours sleep back at Dave and Michelle’s, then packed up my things and went to the airport.

Two flights, a rental car mix-up and an enormously large headache later I arrived in Biscayne National Park. Being back in the South and hearing cicadas again felt like putting on a comfortable sweater- albeit a hot and humid one! I met my awesome flatmates Jeneva Plumb Wright, an intern with Cultural Resources here in the park, and JT, a fellow southerner doing a three-month maintenance stint in the park. And with that I unpacked, prepped my gear for the next morning and fell asleep.

In the morning I met up with Dave Conlin, who had flown to Biscayne a few days earlier. He was assisting a program called Youth Diving with a Purpose, or YDWP. The program is made up of a diverse group of students from different schools, states and even countries, and all of them gain exposure to underwater archeology through the program. Excited to see their work, I splashed down with Dave Conlin, David Gadsby, an archeologist with the National Park Service, and Chuck Lawson, the Cultural Resource manager at the park, and started photographing the intrepid young archaeologists.

Dave having fun with some seaweed!

The site the YDWP program was working on this year is called Captain Ed’s Wreck.The ship lies in about 20 feet of water, and is about 11 miles offshore. According to Josh Marano, a Biscayne National Park archeologist, the ship was from the mid 19th century, and was a sailing cargo vessel. The name came from a concessionaire captain, Captain Ed, who discovered the site and led snorkel trips there- he notified the Park Service of the site and the wreck still bears his name.

The water was an absolute dream to dive in, especially after diving in the 40 degree Fahrenheit water of Yellowstone Lake. Even more exciting than the lovely water temperature and excellent visibility however, was the excitement of the kids in the Youth Diving with a Purpose program. Their enthusiasm was infectious, and after each dive I was eager to get back in the water to photograph their work. It was a challenge to compose a picture with 20 young archeologists diving around the site, but after a few dives the students fell into a rhythm, and it became easier to isolate them photographically to compose a shot.

The students had a chance to show-off their newfound diving and archeological skills when Brian Carlstrom, the superintendent of the park, visited the site. Dave Conlin acted as tour guide and showed Brian where the masts of the wreck used to be, as well as other archeological points of interest. The students shared their work with the superintendent and wrapped up their last day of diving!

Superintendent Brian Carlstrom (left) gives the “ok” to a student archeologist.

Once YDWP concluded I joined the Southeast Archeological Center (SEAC) on their project documenting the Long Reef Cannon Site in the park. The SEAC team included David Morgan, the director of SEAC, Thadra Stanton, the Principal Investigator of the project, Charlie Sproul, a Museum Specialist and Meredith Hardy, an archeologist. The SEAC team was also joined by several members of the SRC, including John Bright, Jessica Keller and Susannah Pershern. Chuck Lawson, Josh Marano and Jeneva Wright of Biscayne National Park also contributed to the project, making it a collaborative effort across different groups of the National Park Service. It was great to see so many different organizations working together!

It was also great to learn more about underwater archeology. Since my main focus is in underwater photography (pun intended) my archeological skills aren’t quite up to snuff. Joining the SEAC/SRC/Biscayne team on this project gave me an opportunity to learn more about the process of documenting an archeological site.

After spending a few days working on the Long Reef Cannon Site I transitioned to working with ongoing projects in Biscayne National Park. One project I was excited to work on was the Lionfish eradication and research project. Lionfish are an invasive species whose population has exploded in the last decade. The invasive fish are voracious eaters, and their fast rate of reproduction makes them a threat to many native reef fish. Each year the park hires interns to conduct research and help eradicate the invasive species; I worked with this year’s grad student interns: Megan Davenport, Michael Hoffman and Kristian Rogers.

My first day with the Lionfish team was a little bumpy; I made the mistake of having coffee on an empty stomach before going diving- mistake number one! The weather was a little stormy, and to top it off my regulator malfunctioned, although thankfully it happened before the dive and not underwater. Hyped up nerves, a rocking boat and intense heat resulted in my first bout of seasickness. Ugh!

                                                                                    The stormy weather while returning to the dock. 

Thankfully we had better weather the next day, and with my newly found “sea legs” I was able to join the lion fish team both on the boat and underwater. Kristian, Mike and Megan definitely made using the speargun look easy- my two attempts went wide. I only hope that the poor fish ended up as another fish’s dinner!

Kristian spearing a large lionfish.

Jeneva and I also had the opportunity to “fillet” some lionfish for dinner. I use the word fillet generously, as it was more like a butchery. Apparently there’s only so much you can learn from a Youtube video!

Jeneva braces herself for the smell.

I also got to spend some time monitoring sea turtle nesting sites in the park. Shelby Moneysmith, the regional Dive Safety Officer and a park biologist, Katie Fisher, a biological technician, and the Fish and Wildlife interns Kelsy Armstrong and Nicole Rodi and I all piled on the boat and went to Elliot Key to look for turtle nests. Looking for turtle nests was like being a detective; we had to interpret the turtle tracks to see if and where the sea turtle laid her eggs. We had a particularly busy day for turtle activity with plenty of false tracks and possible nests.

The high point of my time in Biscayne was a chance manatee encounter while doing sea turtle monitoring. All I needed was for someone to shout “Manatees!” and I was over the side of the boat with my camera. I was actually so excited that I flung my hat, sunglasses and other items all across the boat in my haste to get in the water! It was my first time seeing manatees, and snorkeling with the gentle giants was just amazing. Plus they made great models!

Later in the day we also went on two dives to do reef visual counts, or RVCs. Katie and Shelby explained to me that RVCs had been performed in the park and surrounding area for years, and have been done by different organizations at the local, state and federal level. This has yielded a huge dataset that shows biologists the “big picture” about fish populations in the area. One of the more interesting things we saw on our RVC dives was a beautiful green moray eel, who was  obviously hamming it up for the camera.

Say cheese!

My last adventure in the park was to assist with Lobster Mini-Season, an annual dive derby to catch Caribbean Spiny Lobsters. This was a great opportunity to work with a different side of the park; law enforcement officers, biologists, rangers and volunteers all came together to help assess the mini-season’s impact on the lobster population in the park.

My role was to interview the captain of each boat to find out where, how and how long each boat was  fishing for lobster. It was definitely a hectic experience when we had boats coming in constantly, but I really enjoyed interacting with visitors to the park.

Visiting Biscayne National Park was a rush of different people, projects and experiences. My favorite part of my experience thus far has been meeting the passionate, kind and knowledgeable people that work at each park. If the people I’ve met so far are any indication, then I’m in for a treat as I make my way across the US. Next stop: Dry Tortugas!

Our first trip to Yellowstone concluded with some amazing technology. Mark Hardy, co-owner of a company called 3D at Depth, joined us in the park for the last few days of our project. Apparently the inability to pack light holds true for underwater technology as well, as Mark was accompanied by several pelican cases of gear!

3D at Depth specializes in the underwater application of a scanning technology called lidar which illuminates a target with a laser then analyzes the reflected light. The resulting data set is called a “point cloud” image. Whenever the laser hits the subject of interest it creates a point, and then millions of points combine to form the final image.

For the Yellowstone project, our target was a rowboat that had been sunk in front of Lake Hotel in the early 20^th century. Although Lidar is still a relatively new technology it is rapidly becoming the industry standard in the architectural and engineering world due to its accuracy.  3D At Depth is perfecting the technology in the subsea, or underwater environment, particularly in the oil and gas industry world wide. The SRC has partnered with 3D At Depth to explore how the technology can be utilized to both map historic shipwrecks and educate the public through 3D models. Because this particular laser scanner was depth rated to 3000 meters (thats 9,842.52 feet!) it was pretty unwieldy and extremely heavy, so getting it off and on the boat was quite a process! 

In order to get a 360 degree scan of the rowboat we had to scan nine times each from different angle. This meant that Brett and I would hop in the water, move the scanner, and then surface while the scan was underway. 30 minutes later we’d be back in the water to move the laser again! I broke a new personal record with six dives in one day, although all of them were only to 25′ and relatively short dives. You can check out 3D At Depth profile of the Yellowstone scanning project by clicking the 3D At Depth logo below (opens new window).

After the scanning was complete our work in Yellowstone was done. We packed up the trailer and left it ready for the next trip a week later, and then began the nine-hour trip home. Being back in Denver meant having a week off to relax and prepare for the next Yellowstone trip. The whole Submerged Resources Center Staff was in town (which rarely happens) so it was the perfect opportunity for a staff photo, taken by yours truly. It was a great opportunity to meet everyone, and catch up on different projects that had been ongoing around the country.

Being in Denver also meant I had the opportunity to explore some of the quirkier aspects the city had to offer. Jessica Keller, one of the SRC archaeologists, took me to play a game of underwater hockey. The game is played in eight feet of water, and each player holds a miniature hockey stick to move the puck around the pool and into the opposing team’s goal. After watching a couple YouTube videos I was pretty nervous, as underwater hockey players seemed as competitive and aggressive as real hockey players!  But once I got in the water my nervousness vanished, and I even managed to score two goals! According to the players I was a “natural,” which I thought was pretty funny for such an unusual sport. It must have been all of that club swimming growing up! (Thanks Mom).

Hanging with a Yeti!

After underwater hockey Jess and I went back to her place, where we had some delicious ribs barbecued by SRC archaeologist and grill master John Bright. I’m a recovering vegetarian, and those ribs were the best (and only) I’ve had in seven years! Our food adventures weren’t done there; the next day John and Jess took me to one of their favorite restaurants, the Sherpa House in Golden, Colorado. It was an all-you-can eat Tibetan café, so needless to say I ate all I could!

So with high spirits and a full stomach I was ready for my second trip to Yellowstone. On this project, the SRC was collaborating with National Geographic Magazine and their underwater photographer Brian Skerry to image the geothermal features in Yellowstone Lake. Apparently National Geographic is dedicating an entire issue of the Magazine to Yellowstone National Park in the Fall of 2015 in anticipation of the NPS Centennial anniversary which happens in 2016. Through the SRC’s relationship with Senior Photo Editors at National Geographic they were able to offer up a rarely seen side of Yellowstone, its underwater world, and support this project along with the Park. I researched Brian’s work in college, and even had one of his books signed at the Boston Sea Rovers Film Festival a few months earlier. I was a little worried that I would be too awestruck to speak intelligibly, but luckily he was kind, humble and a great person to learn from. Turns out that earlier in his career he was the recipient of an Our World Underwater Scholarship Society internship as well, which I thought was pretty neat.

Me helping prep Brian’s gear!

The other members of our troop included the SRC’s Deputy Chief and Photographer Brett Seymour, who was on the first Yellowstone trip last week, and Volunteer In Parks (VIP) Jim Koza (known to us simply as Koza) who is a retired NPS’er with nearly 40 years experience running boat and dive operations in and around the NPS. I rounded out the foursome, and after we arrived in Yellowstone Brian started the task of unpacking his nine Pelican cases and prepping his gear.

Saying goodbye to the Mahn!

Koza and I boarded the Robert E. Mahn for an orientation provided by former Lake District Ranger Rick Fey. Rick was a fount of knowledge for all things boat-related, and showed Koza and I the ins and outs of the Mahn. We were taking the boat around the lake when the port engine unexpectedly shut off! Koza maneuvered the boat back to the harbor using only the starboard engine, and then he, Rick and a couple maintenance guys checked out the engine. I didn’t understand all of the lingo about the “outdrive engine,” but at the end of the day we had to find another boat to use. Luckily enough the Maintenance department in the Lake Region generously lent us one of their boats, and we were back in business on the Warwood.

Notice the white knuckles?

My role on this trip was to assist Brett and Brian on their dives and act as camera assistant (handing in and retrieving cameras and lights, last minute vacuum seals, etc.), deckhand, and Dive Supervisor. This was a great opportunity, as I was able to pick up all sorts of useful skills, such as tying knots. Koza is an absolute knot guru, and so I learned the clove hitch, square knot, grapevine knot, Prussik knot, bowline, sheepshank, sheetbend, alpine butterfly knot, anchor bend and figure eight knot. Whew! I also got some more practice at driving a boat, as well as “parking” it! It was a little bumpy, but practice makes perfect.

One of the most important things I learned on this trip was to back up my work on an external hard drive. One night while mooching internet at the Ranger station my hard drive suddenly shut down. My pleas to my laptop went unanswered, and my photos from Yellowstone were lost. It was very upsetting to lose the photographs and all my files, but as Brett said, it’s better to have that lesson learned sooner in both my internship and career rather than later! Now I’ve established a nightly back-up to an external hard drive, just in case.

We had some very special guests join us while diving on Yellowstone Lake: Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk, and Chief of the Yellowstone Center for Resources Dave Hallac both joined us for a morning dive. It was a beautiful day with a calm lake, and their visit was a great opportunity to meet the people running the park! We also had former Chief Ranger and Regional Dive Officer Bob Whaley join us for a day; he started the dive program at Saint Croix National Scenic Riverway in Wisconsin/Minnesota and it was great to hear about his dive programs accomplishment with invasive species on the St. Croix River.

From left to right: Brian Skerry, Dan Wenk, Brett Seymour and Dave Hallac

And of course, I can’t forget the fantastic advice I received from Brian! He encouraged me to get involved in the marine science community, and use photography to tell scientific stories. My favorite thing he said regarding underwater photography was when he said to “take photos that makes that person sitting in a dentist’s chair stop and read the captions.” His advice and encouragement was fantastic motivation to push myself professionally and photographically, and I can’t wait to see where this summer leads me!

Me, Brian, and Brett at a thermal feature in Mary Bay of Yellowstone Lake

Surface support for Brian and Brett

“Welcome to Jellystone!” was our first official welcome into Yellowstone National Park. We rolled in on Monday evening, after a nine-hour drive from Lakewood, Colorado. Our team for this project includes Andres Diaz, an underwater archaeologist, Brett Seymour, an underwater photographer and Deputy Chief, Dave Conlin, the Chief of the Submerged Resources Center and myself.

Tuesday morning dawned bright and early and we started preparations for our two-week project. Brad Ross, the Lake District Ranger gave us a tour of the Bridge Bay Marina, and took us on a short trip on the lake in the Robert E. Mahn, the boat we will be using for our diving operations. We also met Pat Bigelow, a Fisheries Biologist in the park. She outlined some areas of interest for us to survey using the side-scan sonar. The rest of the day was spent preparing the trailer and the boat for operations.

Wednesday was our first day in action, and we woke up to a thin coat of snow covering the dock. We had planned to spend the first half of the morning scanning, and then the afternoon diving, but scanning took up most of the day. Our main focus in Yellowstone is photographing and mapping a natural phenomenon called spires, which are large cylindrical growths formed by bacteria that are 11,000 years old. The spires are found in the north-west area of Lake Yellowstone, and are 10-30 feet high. By scanning the spires with the side-scan sonar we were able to get prices GPS locations for each spire, as well as map the underwater topography of the area. The process for surveying is interesting, however not particularly exciting, as you’re basically driving a boat back and forth in a series of lines as you tow the sonar and collect data. Dave put it best when he said “If you’re doing it right, sonar surveying is boring.” We also scanned some sunken rowboats in front of Lake Hotel which we’ll be photographing and diving near later in our trip. Once our surveying was concluded we brought the boat back to the marina, and wrapped up our day with dinner and some “Moose Tracks” ice cream for dessert. I think they should be called Bison Tracks, but regardless, it’s never too cold for ice cream!

Brrr…

The next day was “splashdown,” as we braced the cold water for a morning dive. I’ve used drysuits in the past, but it’s truly a different beast when you’re diving professionally versus recreationally. For example, who knew that the zipper on your thermal goes on the front!

A new fashion statement?

I tried to prepare mentally, but the 38 degree Fahrenheit water was quite a shock. I had “brain freeze” for a few minutes after we descended, but luckily I was soon distracted by beautiful scenery. We dove in the West Thumb Geyser Basin, which was home to thermal vents both on land and underwater. We came across quite a few “bubblers,” which were small areas of the bottom that were emitting gas bubbles. Even more exciting were the two cavernous holes in the bottom of the lake, which were covered in bright green algae and releasing water at a toasty 48 degree Fahrenheit. We descended into one of the holes, which went about 10 feet below the bottom. It was definitely an otherworldly experience!

Geothermal vents promote algal growth, which blankets construction materials from a destroyed dock. 

We finished up our surveying by scanning some areas of interest provided by Pat Bigelow and the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources department. Lake trout are an invasive species in the lake, and threaten native Cutthroat trout. The Fisheries and Aquatic Resources team records and analyzes the amount of fish caught in certain areas, so we scanned a few locations where they had caught large amounts of the invasive trout. The best part about scanning was I got to try my hand at driving the boat! All went smoothly despite a few navigational hiccups (I blame the wind.)

Andres (left) and Dave pulling up the sonar towfish. 

Once surveying was complete we began focusing more on the photography aspect of our trip. We began diving on the spires, which were a little deeper at around 50 ft. Because the spires are deeper than the geothermal vents, the visibility was quite poor, and any careless fin movement stirred up clouds of silt. It was a great challenge to control buoyancy, not stir up silt, and still get good photos. It took a couple tries, but with some great tips from Brett I finally got a few good shots! One of the humbling aspects of diving among the spires, besides their otherworldly appearance, is the fact that I’m one of approximately 30 people to have seen them in person. The nearest scuba support is in Jackson Hole, and the lack of scuba support combined with the cold water makes diving the spires a nightmare for recreational divers. It makes me feel even more fortunate to have this amazing opportunity!

Me next to the spires! (Photo by Brett Seymour)

We also photographed a number of rowboats in front of Lake Hotel. These rowboats were used to ferry visitors and guests of Lake Hotel, and were sunk in the early 20^th century.

Diving in Yellowstone definitely requires a steep learning curve. Some challenges included getting familiar with a drysuit again, dealing with mask flooding, and trying to find the boat anchor in silted out visibility. Oh, and have I mentioned the cold? Every day there’s a new curveball and something else to become familiar with. A lot of people at the park think that what we do is glamorous, and as the photo below shows, it’s anything but!

Diving means every day is a “bad hair day!”

Of course, crazy hair and difficult diving conditions become minor concerns when surfacing from a dive with this view. Good thing I’ll be coming back next week!

~Yasmeen