Indoor Reef Diving

[00scuba]

I was at the Our World Underwater convention this past weekend in Rosemont, Il...and found something incredible! The possibility of an indoor salt water....live reef....1 million gallons...for us to dive! Tentative date of completion is fall of 2005.

Is this something the midwest could use....YES!!!!!!


www.scubaquarium.com

I would love this. What are your thoughts?

 

[JRO]

Very ambitious project. If it 's everything they say (my inner cynic whispers...) then I think they need to build one of these in Ct.

Jeff

 

[00scuba]

Jeff...i agree. The guy who is in charge left his job with Texas Instruments to pursue this. I believe he said his son is an instructor also.

I am soooo keeping my fingers crossed that this is for real.

 

[Scubaroo]

Seaworld in Australia just opened "Shark Bay" - where you can scuba or snorkel in an artificial lagoon... with a divider between you and the 10' tiger sharks.

 

[JRO]

It seems like building would only be half and probably the easiest half. Maintanance of equipment and more importantly the ecosystem would be a living (excuse the pun) nightmare. Definetly something to keep an eye on.

 

[netmage]

It seems like building would only be half and probably the easiest half. Maintanance of equipment and more importantly the ecosystem would be a living (excuse the pun) nightmare. Definetly something to keep an eye on.

Well - its definately in the right part of town - Naperville. Cost of living is outrageous out there.

The concept seems nice - but from what I gathered is was a pretty penny to dive there. This is off the top of my head - so forgive me if I get it wrong....
$299 one-time initiation fee
Monthly charge of like $50 (depends on number of family members)
Per dive fee of $12 for tanks and weights.

There were different levels of memberships "entitling" you to a certain number of dives per year - the tiers were 4, 16, 32 (I think)....

Essentially for a single/couple membership it comes out to $45+ per dive. The first third of the tank was 10ft, the rest went down to 20-25ft. Interesting reef shelves would be interlaced.

I didn't pick up what size thanks they were using, or if the dives were guided.

 

[SamDiver14]

Does anyone happen to have any information on the feasabilty of such projects? I am just wondering what it might cost to build something like that and cost of operation. Could there be a resort built around something like that? If it was done right it might be very profitable. Not to mention, with the cost of air fare to the Carribean is outrageous. a salt water dive resort and aquarium could just be the diving Six Flags of the future. I would love to hear comments on this idea.

 

[LoneWolf]

I think they would have to limit the use to divers with some experience. Divers with poor buoyancy skills do enough damage to the reefs in the ocean. I would think such damage would be magnified tremendously in an enclosed environment. Of course, I don't know what kind of material they will be using to build the reef. Are they going to try and use live reef or will it be totally artificial? Either way I know I would try something like that if it were near my home.

 

[Juls64]

I think they would have to limit the use to divers with some experience. Divers with poor buoyancy skills do enough damage to the reefs in the ocean. I would think such damage would be magnified tremendously in an enclosed environment. Of course, I don't know what kind of material they will be using to build the reef. Are they going to try and use live reef or will it be totally artificial? Either way I know I would try something like that if it were near my home.

I think with what they are charging, they will limit diving to divers that will pay.

I would like to "try" it too, but the info I saw didn't look like they were set up that way. It looked like you pay, pay some more, then pay to dive.

 

[s7595]

in fl you can dive 2 indoor sites , one at disney cost 150 us and you cannot use your equipment ,they make you ware a 2mi suit you get cold . tampa bay is the other site 150us very small tank , the reef is man made . I did not dive them was not worth it to me at that cost