Towards the end of my internship I had the opportunity gain a good bit of experience working with underwater cameras.  The aquarium camera was still out of commission from last time we used it for the rockfish survey, so Vallorie was gracious enough to allow me to use her own personal camera and housing.  She spent some time with me going over the settings as well as showed me how to set up the housing and check to make sure there were not any leaks.  I took the camera into the Halibut Flats exhibit to get some practice using it underwater.  I have used underwater video equipment in the past for benthic monitoring surveys, but I had no previous experience taking still shots, which I found to be much more difficult.  My first few pictures came out extremely blurry, but after playing around with the lights and concentrating on steadying my hands shots began to come out clearer and crisper.  After the dive, Vallorie showed me how to properly clean and take apart the housing.  We took the memory card out and put it into the computer to check out my photos.  As we looked over them, Vallorie asked me questions about the photos- How could this shot have been better? What would you do differently about the lighting? How could you have changed the point of view to make a more interesting background? She often teaches me by giving me minimal instruction prior to a task, allowing me to figure out how to do something, and more often how not to do something.  Inevitably I make mistakes, but end up learning a lot from the errors.

On Wednesday we took the aquarium RV, Gracie Lynn, out for a collection dive; our goal was to collect Enteroctopus dofleini (giant pacific octopus) and jellyfish- in particular Aurelia (moon jellies) and Chrysaora (sea nettles).  We headed south out of Yaquina Bay towards North Pinnacle, one of my favorite dive sites in this area.  As we moved through the water, which was a mellow brown color because of plankton blooms, we kept our eyes pealed for jellies.  Jellyfish often congregate where two water masses converge.  The water masses can differ in a number of respects including salinity, density, or more commonly for this region- temperature.  This time of year we often see upwelling at high spots of the reefs.  Cold deep water flows inland and upon hitting the reef it is forced upward.  Jellies are often found in abundance where the cold deep water meets the warmer subsurface water and are pushed to the surface by the strong upward currents.  When the depth finder signaled that we were over a high point on the reef we all looked overboard to search for jellies.  As suspected, we saw them congregating just below the surface.  Peter, an intern from the Aquarium Science Program at Oregon Coast Community College, suited up to free dive and jumped in the water.  We handed a net down to him and filled a barrel with water to hold the jellies that he would catch.  I watched as he put his face in the water to watch below for specimens that were in good enough condition to put on display in the aquarium.  He free dove down about 10 feet to where most of the undamaged sea nettles were hiding out.  One by one he handed up sea nettles and moon jellies of varying sizes.  After about half an hour, the jellies seemed to disperse, and Peter was having more difficulty catching them so we helped him aboard and continued on our way.

 When we arrived at the top of the pinnacle Jim briefed us on how to best catch an octopus.  The easiest method is to lay the bag behind the octopus mantle and then place your hand in front of the octopus. Using this method the octopus will back up on its own into the collection bag. I would be diving with Vallorie and my primary focus was to take photos, although if we saw an octopus we would by all means attempt to bring it up.  The ocean was much calmer than last week, and the visibility, at about 7 ft., was not bad either.  Due to the relatively mild conditions, Vallorie felt it was a great opportunity to load me with a few more tasks than I would normally take on.  I would handle the reel, camera, and navigation.  Since we would be using a safety reel tied off to the anchor line the navigation part would not be too difficult, but I still needed to get us oriented in the correct direction so we could find deeper water; I needed to reach at least 60 ft. in order for the dive to count towards my 60ft depth certification.  I took a giant stride off the stern, tapped my head to signal I was ok, and reached up to grab the camera.  I attached it to the D ring on my right, as I already had my octo, computer, and a reel attached to my left D ring.

We descended along the anchor line to the top of the pinnacle, and I tied off the safety reel to the anchor line, which was a more difficult task than usual because I had to hold the camera and deal with surge.  Once the line was secure, I used my compass to find East, and I signaled for us to swim in that direction.  We slowly made our way along the reef, keeping our eyes peeled for octopus as I experimented with the camera, still figuring out how to orient the lights.  Even with the task loading, my air consumption was better than it had been on previous off shore dives, and I could tell that I am getting used to the Pacific North West conditions. I tried to take interesting shots and get as close as possible to each subject in order to capture as much detail as possible.

 Back aboard Gracie Lynn, we were excited to find that Jenna and Brittany had already brought up one octopus- a cute little fellow, about 20 lbs.  Jim and Peter geared up and got in the water to try their hand in octopus catching.  They resurfaced about half an hour later with a great catch.  They managed to get a fairly large 45 lb octopus!  We put it in one of the totes and covered the lid so that it wouldn’t feel too uncomfortable.  It was a very successful day; we came back with not one, but two octopus, 10 jellies, and I managed to get some great photos.  I am very excited to continue working on my underwater photography skills and it is wonderful to have such a great teacher! Thanks Vallorie 🙂         

I have finally completed the last requirements towards becoming a fully certified AAUS scientific diver! The process began while I was still at home in Pennsylvania, with a medical exam to attest to my diving fitness.  Recreational divers are required to have a similar medical exam when they initially get certified, however to remain certified as a scientific diver you must complete a medical examination every 5 years until the age of 40, with more frequent medical exam requirements after that.  Throughout my first few weeks at the aquarium, I completed the preliminary requirements towards completing the certification, such as swim tests and open water checkouts.  The swimming evaluation consisted of four components: swimming underwater for 25 yards without surfacing, swimming 400 yards in less than 12 minutes, treading water for 10 minutes, and transporting another person 25 yards in the water. Initial scuba skill checkouts were basic- remove and replace mask, regulator recovery, alternate air source.  As the weeks continued I worked on fine tuning my buoyancy skills and using more advanced skills, such as hovering gear removal and SMB deployment, working with reels, lift bags, and hardware- all while wearing 7mm gloves of course.

My skills were put to test when I completed an underwater obstacle course that Jenna set up in the Shark Observation Pool.  Before getting in the water I put pieces of material in my mask so that I was ‘blindfolded’.   I finger crawled along the down line to make sure that I was descending at the proper rate.  Once I got to the bottom I followed another line until I got to the first station- nut and bolt assembly.  There were two bolts, one with nuts and washers on it and another that was empty.  I had to take the nuts and washers off the loaded bolt and move them to the empty one.  I wrapped the line around one of my arms to prevent myself from drifting off and loosing the obstacle course.  One by one I removed the nuts and washers and put them on the other bolt.  Once I screwed on the last nut Jenna grabbed my hand and wrapped her thumb and forefinger around my thumb, signaling I had completed that task and could move on to the next station. I made an O with my fingers around the line and followed it to the next station- mask removal to un-blindfold myself.  I removed my mask, took out the material, replaced the mask, and cleared the water out.  Ahh I could see again! I again followed the line to the next station- knot tying.  First, I used the line to tie a clove hitch around a shark stick.  Jenna gave me the ok signal and I untied the line and tied a bowline around a ring of PVC.  Then I followed the line to the final station.  Rope was bundled up and zip tied together. I used my knife to remove the zip tie and handed Jenna the rope.  I had completed the obstacle course and even managed to keep my air consumption at its usual rate!

Scientific diving depth certifications are slightly different than those for recreational diving.  As a trainee, the permit level depth limit is 30ft., which can be exceeded with the permission of the DSO.  From there, depth certifications are to 60, 100, 130, 150, and 190ft.  At each level you must satisfy the minimum number of dives in that depth range in order to move to the next certification level.  To get a 60ft. certification, for example, you must complete 12 open water dives between 31-60ft.  All subsequent certification levels require only 4 dives between the old and new certification depths.  By the end of my internship I was able to obtain a depth certification level of 100 ft.

The most notable difference between the recreational and scientific diving certification is the academic requirement. The written exam for the scientific diver certification covers a great deal of information; In fact it is required that a minimum of 100 hours is dedicated to covering academic concepts.  AAUS powerpoints cover such topics as diving physics & physiology, AAUS standards, nitrox diving, harmful marine organisms, accident management and emergency care, diving under special conditions, and handling high-pressure cylinders.  Each week I studied a few of the powerpoints and review the quizzes at the end of each topic with Jenna or Vallorie.  It took, me about 6 weeks to get through all of them, at which point I was ready for the exam.  It was a lot of material and I spent hours studying, but my hard work paid off and I breezed through the test.

The last step towards becoming a scientific diver was completing an equipment exam.  Jenna put together two sets of gear, each which had a number of problems.  I had to inspect each set of gear and point out everything that was wrong with them.  Some of the problems were easy to spot, like the BCD was not lined up properly with the face of the cylinder.  Other details were more difficult to spot, such as missing zip ties around the mouthpiece of a regulator.  With each set of equipment I was able to quickly list of a number of problems I saw right away, but then had to spend a few minutes staring at the gear before I found all the problems.  This was a great exercise because it teaches you to inspect gear with extreme scrutiny.  The more I inspect gear the easier it will become for me to spot out potential problems, increasing not only my safety, but also the safety of my dive buddies.

Recently I had the incredible opportunity to scuba dive in Clear Lake, a serene, freshwater lake that sits about 75 miles east of Eugene. I was told about the lake by Sean Nolan, a friend through the aquarium and NAUI instructor.  After hearing about my recurring low visibility dives on the coast, he graciously offered to take me to Clear Lake, where the visibility is known to be up to 200 feet!  Besides the obvious allure of great visibility, this would also give me experience with altitude diving, as Clear Lake sits at an elevation of 3,012ft.  I discussed the plan with Vallorie, who liked the idea of broadening my dive experience, and approved the trip pending  my submission of  a dive plan.

The drive from Eugene to Clear Lake was beautiful; I especially liked the fact that it was sunny and 85 degrees out, one of the benefits to leaving the coast and heading to the valley.  Clear lake is situated in the Cascade Mountains and serves as the headwaters to the McKenzie River, the primary source of drinking water for Eugene.  Volcanic eruptions 3000 years ago, created the beautiful oasis, leaving behind breathtaking scenery of volcanic rock that seems to tumble into the lake, and a unique bottom composition of thick ash.  Because of this, it is important to avoid touching the bottom while diving so as not to diminish the visibility.  Finely tuned buoyancy control and a modified frog kick with fin tips pointed toward the surface)  helps to avoid disturbing the ash bottom.

Clear lake is primarily fed by snow runoff, which filters through underground caverns for more than 20 years before emptying into Clear Lake.  Its glacial origin results in very cold water, about 40°F or less year round, making a drysuit essential for a comfortable dive.  The fact that inflow is primarily from subsurface drainage through volcanic rock results in an unusual chemical and biological composition.  Major ion concentrations are higher than most other Cascade lakes, however nutrient supply is limited. The chemical composition, in addition to the frigid temperatures, gives rise to an oligotrophic lake, meaning that primary productivity is very low.  The biologically unproductive waters are left very transparent and saturated with dissolved oxygen.

We entered the water on the western bank, and made our way towards the center of the lake where the depth increases to about 45ft.  As soon as we hit deeper waters I immediately wished I had an underwater camera; the crystal clear water reminded me of the tropics, minus the warm water and bustling coral reefs.

Although this water wasn’t teeming with life, there was still plenty to see.  Brilliant fields of green algae pillowed over the ash bottom like giant blankets, and a canyon of hardened lava protruded from the northern edge of the lake.  We swam south, closely inspecting the algae and admiring the incredibly serene and clear water.  Even in a dry suit I began to get cold within a half an hour, even shorter for Sean who was diving wet.  The profile in my dive plan stated that our bottom time would be 40 minutes, so when we hit the half hour mark we turned around and made our way back to the exit point.  We both had the same response upon surfacing… we wished we had an underwater camera!  

In an effort to document changes in Northwest rockfish populations, Oregon Coast Aquarium has collaborated with the Seattle Aquarium and Point Defiance Zoo to survey rockfish populations in the Pacific Northwest.  I was eager to participate in this project, not only because it would allow me to work on my videography skills, but also because I would have the chance to dive with a full-face mask.  There are a number of advantages to diving with a full face mask, including limiting exposure to cold temperatures or contaminated waters, as well as allowing you to communicate underwater through either hardwire or wireless communication devices.  This project takes advantage of underwater communication to improve the accuracy of the surveys by combining in-situ audio data with a visual recording of the test site.

training in Halibut Flats

The first step was getting trained for diving a full-face mask configuration.  Along with seven other scientific divers from the aquarium I settled into the conference room for the classroom portion of the training.  Any time you are diving with new equipment it is important to understand how that piece of equipment works and the risks associated with it.  By having both a knowledge and skill based appreciation for your dive gear, you will be better prepared to react to situations that may arise.  After learning about the background/ methodology of the project and going over the specifics of diving with a full-face mask, it was time for some in water training in Passages of the Deep.  The first group of divers geared up, adjusted the masks in order to get a good seal, and got in the shark observation pool, a small enclosure connected to Open Sea (the exhibit holding the sharks and rays), which is used for feeding the rays and introducing new animals.

 This was an ideal place to get familiar with using a full face mask because it is shallow, only 12 feet deep, and the water temperature is slightly warmer than Halibut Flats.  Unfortunately when it came time for me to try out the masks, my face was too small to get a good seal.  Vallorie assured me however that I would still be able to work on the project wearing a conventional mask. Once the rest of the crew were comfortable with removing and replacing their masks, we got into Halibut Flats to practice setting up transects and using the video camera.

A few days later it was time to try out our new skills in open water.  Jim, Vallorie, myself and four other AAUS Scientific Divers set out on Gracie Lynn for North Reef, which was selected as one of the survey sites for the rockfish project.  The first buddy team went down to place the block that we would start the survey from.  Once they had it in place, they signaled their location by deploying a surface marker buoy, which cued Vallorie and I to get inthe water.  We descended along the anchor line and pointed our compasses towards the heading we had taken on the surface.  The visibility was only about 5 ft. but within a few minutes we were able to locate the other buddy pair waiting by the block.  I clipped the transect tape to the block and we swam south along the wall to conduct the survey.  Visibility was poor and the current made it a challenge to remain in proper positioning with Vallorie, but we made it to 50 meters, at which point I signaled to Vallorie that it was time to turn around.  On the way back towards the block, the camera housing started beeping, signaling that a leak was detected.  We quickly got back to the marker buoy and ascended to care for the camera.  Once on board we washed the housing with fresh water and carefully took it apart.  This should be the first step any time you suspect a leak in your underwater camera housing.  We then placed the camera in a zip lock bag with desiccant pellets in hopes that it would dry out before any damage was done.  We were unable to use the camera the rest of the day, but luckily this was just a training day and it was not critical that we collect data.  We spent the rest of the dives working on skills such as navigation, setting up transects, and deploying surface marker buoys, and also had the chance to collect invertebrates for the aquarium.  Although some may consider the low visibility, high surge water to be less than ideal diving conditions, I feel that the difficult working conditions enhance training dives.  If you can successfully handle equipment and manage task loading in these conditions, you will be much better prepared for future dives no matter where they are!