Another Great Diver

[VooDooGasMan]

My neighbor visited the island over the weekend and at dinner he mentioned more of his diving, he dove for the EPA and bill high was his naui Instructor and also the seattle underwater sports was called silent world( second time hearing this, last spring I set a buoy in a waterfront home next to clinton ferry landing, and owner told me same thing), so bill taught a class for for epa guys or something it was at noaa or something if I recall it right( Industrial IPA from DK)

So anyways he told this while watching my greatest dive times of 2011 DVD, in the past years he always knew the sea=life better than me so I asked, he did many dives checking on reports from companies discharging, his favorite dive was in the early 70's a cruise ship that came to port they dove it to find a big pipe attached to hull with drugs in, when they searched there were freshly cut brackets is all they found. He had some other great dive stories as well he retired last year as the director of EPA, or at least he said a Director in alaska, not sure his last assignment, but he flew twice a week since I knew him.

There are really a lot of divers that have not dove in years and they know all the same sea creatures, except there were tons of them back then.

 

[TSandM]

There are really a lot of divers that have not dove in years and they know all the same sea creatures, except there were tons of them back then

This is very probably true. The problem is that nobody has any documentation, other than the memories of the guys who were there "then".

One of the things we are trying to do now is create a baseline, so that people ten years from now will be able to KNOW whether things have changed or not. It's not easy to do this -- you need to figure out how to do documentation, and how to create an inter-observer reliable reporting mechanism.

We are having our first Project Baseline dive on February 11th. This is a GUE affiliate project, so only GUE divers will be in the water, but people who want to help can provide shore support and data entry and management. Creating a reliable baseline that future divers and policy people can refer to is worth the effort. Contact me if you are interested in helping with this project.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Well that is great and jan has been doing it for years, I help him buy being his DEEP Dive observer and also shallower and we debrief, he does what he does and I learn even more about sea life.

So I Guess TS&M you are doing a similar REEF project.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Ok TS&M I did a google search and I see a seattle GUE, and there is no info on site so I guess you are not sure as of yet how or what this program is like, on the event schedule it does send to a facebook link, maybe that has more detail, but for divers like me I will never join facebook or any of the like so how could one get more info.

Laura I see no mention of you in this GUE link and if I ever mentioned you as a GUE Diver I'm sorry, maybe I thought cause of your tweek dives before and I guess this just is getting all confusing, or you have backed out of it for awhile.

To sum up TS&M what is your project baseline, is it like a REEF that janna has, I mean I do understand at a divers point but marine bio has been around for years, Myself I know things that know one does by seeing, and I relay once in awhile of my findings when similar comes up in conversation. And I understand How I see a ton of rock fish and ling cod in puget sound and if wfdf opens it the Indians will have access and it will get emptied in a few years.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Ok I see a pattern here to make money in scuba.
Science - Cousteau Divers

And the Gue will let you be on shore and do the data for the divers, seems like you would do your own data, of course if you pay to join it is possible to join on the dive, then you hand off your data to shore support. just trying to figure out this GUE project baseline.

 

[TSandM]

Project Baseline is an effort to document sites, using a variety of metrics. The project in Wakulla has looked at visibility and various water quality measurements, and done a lot of photographic documentation. Our pilot project here is going to use photography and surveying as well as counts of animals, and may also try to do some water quality and visibility measurements.

We are just starting our project and feeling our way a bit; each project is different, because how a place is best documented can vary.

Jan's photographic work on Whidbey is utterly spectacular art, and incredibly educational (I'm one of Jan's biggest fans) but it isn't what we are trying to do. We are trying to use a variety of methods to get a multi-media description of a site, which can be compared over time by different observers.

As I said, this is a GUE project, and per project guidelines (not written by anybody here) divers must be GUE certified. It's kind of like having to have an AAUS certification to do university diving.

Here's a link to the GUE page on Project Baseline: http://www.projectbaseline.org/

 

[danvolker]

Ok I see a pattern here to make money in scuba.
Science - Cousteau Divers

And the Gue will let you be on shore and do the data for the divers, seems like you would do your own data, of course if you pay to join it is possible to join on the dive, then you hand off your data to shore support. just trying to figure out this GUE project baseline.

GUE runs either as or like a non-profit.....They did a massive amount of Groundwater research with the area scientists along with WKPP at Wakulla ( Talahassee Florida area)..this is where Project Baseline began, and it is now being added to many other areas where there are GUE divers and a need for Baseline studies.
We have begun one in Palm Beach, as well. There would never be a charge to divers for being in a Baseine project. All the work they do is volunteer, and we make the data visbile to EVERYONE via a Google Earth front end...This way we can show politicians the changes caused by things like Beach renourishment projects, and ANYONE would have access to the information at any time.

Visit Project Baseline and try wakulla....

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Ok so that is more discriptive in the florida and your starting here, It sounds close to what the EPA divers have been doing for decades, just not public info.

I would think with Lj's films and Scott boyd's you could have a bit of past to start with and katrina kruse has Info and pics from many many years to transfer data, divers and data are out there in the past, just need to make it happen is all, then monitor it from here on out.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Yea I'm understanding as you posted dan how it is getting a lift off here in PNW.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

So far TS&M I only see GUE as doing skills dives and some dpv dives and always west seattle, how many areas are going to be covered, like here on whidbey there will never be GUE, for one we have the biggest dive teams in the world, The Navy Seals and Navy divers. so therefore you will be doing dives repeatedly around the sound.

And is it safe as I thought it was a hell of a coincidence that Lj did a outflow in the news in west seattle, and the next day almost she had her tanks and some dive gear stolen from her truck at home. And I really think there are things that the government do not want to make public, or the state in our area.

Unless just a local divesite that is dove all the time I'm not seeing it to go far but I guess we wont know till we try.