Cool video I stumbed upon about Cordell Banks

[Eric Sedletzky]

I was curious about what Cordell Banks might look like underwater and came across this video. Looks like some locals out of Monterey by a few names I recognize. It’s pretty deep, about 180’ to the top of the ridges from what I understand.

 

[elgoog]

That's from a project BAUE (Bay Area Underwater Explorers - GUE's local chapter) started a few years ago and is still ongoing. The team tries to go out there every October. It's a really cool project in a beautiful location and super fun (for me, anyway) to read, talk to folks about and aspire to be a part of - many years away for me, but still ...

Here's another video that's an overview of the project itself.

Allison has a blog where she sometimes posts about it too. Here's the links to the 2013 trip (pt 1, pt 2, pt 3, pt 4), 2014 trip and 2016 trip

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

That’s pretty cool.
Those are very advanced open ocean dives for sure with no visible land in sight. I went out to Cordell once with the NOAA crew to assist in bird and sealife counts. We saw so much when we were out there. Blue whales on the way out, other whales and porpoises when we were out there, a pod of orcas, and a huge chunk of foam that floated over the Pacific from somewhere. We picked it up.

I know a guy who dived it many years ago with the Navy to check barrels of radioactive waste that were dumped there (in the vicinity). It was always kept very quiet. They were diving 200’ on air with big twins and double hose regulators. Probably in wetsuits and no BC devices of any sort. My how times have changed.

 

[Fish&beer]

Yes I was on the original Cordell Banks Expeditions dive team that occurred 1978 to the mid 80's. We used double 72's or 80's diving down to 160/200 foot depths with just air. Todays BAUE tech divers are using much more modern gear than we had at the time. Some us us just used horsecollar vest or in several cases, a drysuit without a BC. On some dives we dove triple 80's. The third tank was used to power air chisels to get rock samples. The extra tank was also used to power an air dredge to suck up sediment, but it didn't work out so good due to the depth. IMO Cordell Banks is one of the most interesting and beautiful places I have ever dived.

Here is an early newscast of which I shot some 16mm film for it. It was actually broadcast in 1982 or so and not from 1970's

Here is expedition photographer Don Dvorak's webpage of photos of Cordell Banks marine life as well as behind the scene photos from the early expeditions.
Ten years of exploration 1977-1986

 

[Protondecay123]

I was curious about what Cordell Banks might look like underwater and came across this video. Looks like some locals out of Monterey by a few names I recognize. It’s pretty deep, about 180’ to the top of the ridges from what I understand.

Wow! An incredible amount of life. Googling around I stumbled upon the NOAA site for Cordell Banks Marine Sanctuary with lots of good info. Looks like the 30th Anniversary will be May 17th, this year. Thanks for the education!
About Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary