Silt strategies?

[Fine Swine]

Greetings all. So, I'm getting ready (2 weeks) to head back down to Venice for my second tooth-diving effort and I'm wondering, how do you all deal with silt? Is it best to try to fan it away, dig around in the silt and sand, or just do your best to see past it and look for shapes? Thanks!

Chris

Of course, I'm still hoping that some of it will get blown out...

 

[King of Snarge]

I don't think there is a single catch-all strategy here.

Last dive I fanned from shallow to deep in a sweeping motion, trying to bring the clearer water from higher in the water column. Then I would gently fan radially from the spot of interest.

Another attempt involved thoroughly fanning the a portion of the bottom until viz was obscured, then come back later to the spot once it had settled again.

I keep trying different approaches until I find what works. Conditions can make tooth hunting a challenging endeavor that produces a different experience each time. That's what I love about it; it never gets old or routine.

King of Snarge

 

[danvolker]

This would atually be a great use for one of those almost completely useless scooters by Seadoo or the Bladefish scooter....there must be quite a few people that bought in to the advertising nonsense, got these pretenda-scoooters, then realized they swim much faster than the scooters will propel them

So put out a post that you are looking to rent one of these, and the "Renter" may well have a market for future rentals in silt displacement....you just hold the thing close to the area you want to clear, and let it blow away the silt......
Anyone who bought a Bladefish would have to be much better off renting you the thing for a day or a week, cheap, than just having the otherwise useless POS, just collecting dust in a closet

 

[idive2]

The fanning does work some as long as you're fanning from quite a ways up from the bottom or you will just stir up
more silt. My first meg I found laying in a shallow crevice between two rock protrusions from the reef. I see all the areas
that have been searched by others and for a while I stopped at these areas but after a bit I just kinda went on my own
ideas of where they might be. I shore dive so the teeth do not seem to be found in the same numbers as from the charters.

 

[Fine Swine]

Thanks for the input, everyone. Fortunately, unlike last year, I get to dive on two separate days this month, so if it's not working the first day, I can try something different next time.