Meg diving questions

[fjpatrum]

I'm a new diver-- 13 or 14 dives I think. I'm very comfortable in the water and I'm looking to do some meg diving in the nearish future, if I can work it out.

I know some of the local divers here make trips to NC for meg dives but it sounds like they're basically using scooters to "blow away" sand. In a couple of threads I've read it sounds like folks are basically planting themselves on the bottom a bit overweighted and just digging around.

My questions are thus: what are typical depths and conditions in NC areas that are good for meg dives? (I still use air at a moderate rate so depth is a factor in how long I'll be able to search around.) Are there particular ops that "specialize" in meg dives that any of you folks might recommend? Are there any particular techniques for finding these things or just sink and dig, move and dig, move and dig until you find some or come up?
And, last but not least, any ideas where I can find more info about the sharks themselves? So far what I've turned up is the wikipedia page and a couple of other sites.

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

To be truthful I have never dove in NC but what I have read so far is that you should have a considerable amount of experience for the river diving and off shore is going to run 75 ft plus in depth. Anyone feel free to correct me if I am wrong. Last year I dove for shark's teeth in Venice FL and the water is only 30ft so you can maximize your BT. And you should do good if you go out with a charter.
We drove down from Halifax and brought a Zodiac and we found some good sharks teeth on our first dive with out even knowing the area that well.
ZDD

 

[Lee Taylor]

I have done over 100 Meg dives, in the Cooper, Wando, and Edisto rivers, all in Charleston SC. I have done some Meg diving offshore Venice Florida and I dove a ledge offshore Charleston last season that had a fossil bed in it. I have not done any offshore Wilmington Meg dives but I have heard about them and I have seen the u-tube videos.

I use to own an Apollo AV-1 scooter. It was quite cumbersome. When you flipped it around to blow away sand what usually happened to me was the scooter just propelled me backwards. One really needs to be tied to something when using a powerful scooter.

The most common Meg dives offshore Wilmington NC are at 100'. There may be some shallower. The reason I say this is because we have three distinct ledges running parallel to our coast line. I am sure there are LOTS that have not been found yet.

When diving rivers, one can fan away the sand. In some places on the ocean bottom one can fan away the sand.

What you will likely find at an ocean "fossil site" is that the one cannot fan or easily dig because everything is stuck together. This is caused by the phosphate and limestone that fossils are typically found in.

In diving Venice I have found the best way to do salt water fossil diving is to hover just above the bottom and cover as much ground as you can in a quick manner, all the time looking for triangular shapes with much pink and white growth on them. I think offshore Wilmington is similar.

The two op's that I am aware of that specialize in Meg dives are:

Aquatic Safaris in Wilmington NC and the Cape Fear Dive Center in Carolina Beach (20 minutes from Wilmington)

If you search I think you will find some more.

 

[krawdady]

I agree with Lee. Scooters aren't as easy as they sound and it's best (in venice anyway) to not go to crazy fanning and stirring up the bottom although some light fanning is alright. Too much and you usually just screw up the viz for yourself and other divers and then you have to wait for it to clear. My tactic (like Lee said), hover just above the bottom and cover as much as you can. Look for triangles not teeth, or any other shape that doesn't seem like it would be part of the natural bottom. After you've found a couple you will start to see them better. However, if you do come to venice and you aren't great with a compass yet I would say don't stray too far. In venice it is not uncommon to be underwater for 1 1/2 hours so you really can find yourself quite far from the boat when you surface and if you are nearing the end of your air that would not be a fun surface swim. The dive operators usually dump you in the vicinity of where you need to be anyway. Last weekend I was out with Aristakat and practically dropped down on top of a 4 1/2" tooth. Its a lot of fun and I hope you can get a chance to try it.