Diving the Newport Aquarium

[dripdrypoet]

Wow, aquarium diving is a whole other thing! It seems that one must develop a different subset of skills, or at least learn to place a different emphasis on ones already learned. Here is a list I am starting after my first “real” dive at the Newport Aquarium.

• The least important fin technique is propulsion.
• The most important fin technique is minimal usage.
• Entry and exit require a level of finesse totally absent from other forms of diving.
• Positional awareness is paramount. Not only do you have to know exactly where your fins end, so you don’t knock over any part of the exhibit you are diving, you need to be aware of what critters are near, and what potential harm you can do to each other.
• Diving exhibits presents a significant task load. No more a removed observer, you have lots and lots of stuff to remember to do.
• Most of all, since you are in the public eye all of the time you are underwater, you have to look totally cool while you are doing all of the above stuff.

My first dive was simply wonderful, and more than a tad humbling. My entry left a lot to be desired, my feet seemed to be a lot longer than I ever remembered them to be, especially in the cramped quarters of the exhibit, and I found out it is hard to clean glass underwater until you learn how to use suction cups.

But, what an epiphany!

Did you know that butterfly fish adore a sand shower? It was so totally cool to grab a fist full of sand and watch these fish play in the shower as I released it slowly. The Honeycomb Moray is perhaps the most beautifully colored eel I have ever seen, and a total delight to hand feed and watch swim. Puffer fish are just so cute! It was just too much delight to cram into one 80 minute dive.

Lemon sharks do a really neat dance when they are hand fed from the surface. The Porcupine Puffer will jump a little out of the water to snatch a tasty morsel out of your hand. Starfish seem to magically make their food disappear when you wedge a piece of fish up next to their “feet.”

Have you ever held an octopus?

Just too much fun!

Ray

 

[jbd]

Sounds like you're on your way to becoming a cave diver

Sounds like a cool way to enjoy the marine creatures and see what most of us will never see.

We may need to get a group together and come watch you work; or is should that be play

 

[dripdrypoet]

Sounds like you're on your way to becoming a cave diver

Sounds like a cool way to enjoy the marine creatures and see what most of us will never see.

We may need to get a group together and come watch you work; or is should that be play

Oh, it is play, no doubt!

Yes, I suppose if you take away the visibility, throw in the constant threat of eminent death, and add in an impossibility of making it to the surface, you could be talking about cave diving (BIG grin here.) Me, I would prefer to cavort with a mostly tame sand tiger than to go into a cave.

(He says, while getting his gear ready for a long week of wreck diving in Lake Superior.)

 

[divad]

Have you ever held an octopus?

Yes, in Sete, France. It reached out and touched my finger just like in the painting.

 

[dripdrypoet]

Yes, in Sete, France. It reached out and touched my finger just like in the painting.

I was fortunate enough to be the on the topside while a diver was cleaning out the octopus tank. This girl was so inqusitive that she had to be entertained while the diver was under, or she would have been a real pest, getting in his face and trying to get the reg out of his mouth. So, the acquairist (sp?) let all of us who were helping out that day play with the octopus for a good half hour. It was so cool. She would taste each of us (with her tentacles) and could tell us apart almost immediately. I now know what it would feel like to be touched by an alien.

 

[divad]

I was fortunate enough to be the on the topside while a diver was cleaning out the octopus tank. This girl was so inqusitive that she had to be entertained while the diver was under, or she would have been a real pest, getting in his face and trying to get the reg out of his mouth. So, the acquairist (sp?) let all of us who were helping out that day play with the octopus for a good half hour. It was so cool. She would taste each of us (with her tentacles) and could tell us apart almost immediately. I now know what it would feel like to be touched by an alien.

Yes. Yes to the alien part.

 

[dripdrypoet]

Sounds like a cool way to enjoy the marine creatures and see what most of us will never see.)

Newport is just up the road. Although I am the very newest of their divers, and know so distressingly little about this wonderful place (right now), I would greatly enjoy showing it off.

I mean, who would have thought that such wonderful marine stuff could be visited without even getting on a plane!

 

[jbd]

I've not been to the Newport aquarium yet. My wife and kids have been there. I think Zocrowes255 is one of the divers for the aquarium. He's with Louisville Dive Center.

You mentioned wreck diving in Lake Superior. Do you do penetrations on those wrecks? The skill set you were mentioning in the original post made me think of the similarities to cave and wreck penetration dives.

 

[dripdrypoet]

You mentioned wreck diving in Lake Superior. Do you do penetrations on those wrecks?

Yeah, but I don't go into submarines . We will do some penetrations, but since we are limited to one tank and a stage bottle they won't be any big deal.

I am pretty good with MY fins, drysuit, tanks, wings and regulators, but when you put on a wetsuit and use other people's receational-class stuff ... and have a couple hundred people looking at your every move through plexiglass ... you are turning another page, at least to me, on this first dive, anyway.

Probably it is just like anything new, the task loading seems to be almost overwealming, until you get into a routine.

 

[jbd]

What dive operations do you use for these trips?

I forgot about the fact you had to use the other gear. Have to agree that nothing seems to go real well when you've got crowd watching your every move.