Wreck Diving for Dissertation Research

[Pavel Spirine]

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure whether this is best suited to Travel discussions or Wreck diving so I'm posting in both, moderators feel free to delete as necessary!
I am a second year geography student at Cambridge University, UK. For my third year dissertation I'm required to undertake a research project and I have chosen something which incorporates my diving hobby!

The dissertation will assess the impact of wreck characteristics upon marine biodiversity. The plan is to dive several wrecks, counting species and extent of plants (no fishies!), and seeing if there is any correlation with wreck size, age, complexity or material. Obviously if the wrecks are in significantly different locations then samples will be taken near each wreck, away from it to use as a control for local species. Some sand samples might be collected too to compare any chemical impact of wrecks.

I need to decide where is best to go for this research, since the global collection of wrecks is somewhat overwhelming from a logistical point of view.
I am an advanced open water (PADI) diver, and I still consider myself a beginner so would prefer to dive easy-ish wrecks. My experience with wreck diving (did the specialty) is with Zenobia in Cyprus (I am originally from Cyprus so all of my dives have been there).

I would obviously prefer if I could find a place where I could study 8-10 different wrecks in one location (or close by), since that would make cost and time issues a lot easier!

Also it is easier for me if I can do wrecks in the Med or in the Red Sea since I would be in Cyprus at the time anyway. Zenobia will be dived as an alternative dataset (which on its own is useless since it's just one ship). I'll either be diving alone with tour guides/groups, or with my father (same qualification as me, more experienced, but not with wrecks). Obviously we'd still dive with a leader/dive guide wherever we go.

Does anybody have any suggestions/comments/ideas on where the best place would be to go? If it's in the med it's not really a problem to go to 3 different countries since they're both close, and cheap (relatively) to get to.

This would take place throughout September 2008.

Also I would like some sort of information regarding what the best way about collecting data is, since obviously the dive group would be more interested in observing fish/swimming around the wreck, rather than counting plant species etc.

Thanks so much,

Pavel

 

[MattL]

The only ones in the red sea i know are deep umm but the west coust in the states have from wood to cleaned wrecks would maybe be a good place for that seeing how youd get ever type of wreck that are close or some were in brit im sure has that too from the war but ill take alook for you in the red sea

 

[Seadeuce]

I would suggest one variable that would directly influence the number and type of plants on the wrecks and that is enrgy, of the surrounding water that is.
A wreck in a high-energy site will have a different variety of life on it, as opposed to a low-energy one.

I mention this because this fact could very easily complicate your survey. You may want the wrecks to be on sites that have similar current characteristics.

Seadeuce

 

[desmarins]

Dear Pavel,

I strongly recommend you prepare yourself in advance, in particular as regarding to:

a) research: try and define what kind of wreck you want to focus on; WW2, 17th, steamers, liners, etc? That might help you narrow your choices down. Meaning different sorts of wrecks provide different conditions to marine life. Metal vs. wood vs etcectect. Location is another way to short list also, so I guess you should go down the tropical route; the Caribbean / Maldives / Pucket and so on are a must.

b) dive qualifications: some wrecks require specific training; make sure you have them (i.e. whreck diving specialties, archeological diving -such as Nautical Archeological Society's- for you might want to leave a site undisturbed, and related specialties (nitrox, drysuit, digital photo, deep dive, etc.?))

Have a great time!

 

[Pavel Spirine]

desmarins,

1) The whole idea is to observe several wrecks with different characteristics and quantitatively (statistically) compare the impact of Age, Material etc. on marine life. Thus to me places where there's ten wrecks nearby of different age (North Carolina? I don't know much about the Caribbean to be honest with regards to wrecks), is better than a place where there's 20 wrecks all of which are almost the same.

2) I have advanced open water, deep and wreck diving specialty. I aim to do the nitrox course over my Easter break in about a month. If there's more technical qualifications associated with a dive site I will most likely give it a miss since I don't want this to turn into something that I'm simply not ready for.

Cheers for the replies!

 

[meesier42]

I have to agree with desmarins on this. Based on your comments your study will be so broad that it will have no conclusive findings. You need to more clearly define your study to be specific enough that you can draw meaningful conclusions. ie compare a cleaned (artifical reef) to an uncleaned wreck, or wood substrate vs metal, or even select a single wreck and compare the growth rates on the upcurrent to downcurrent sides, or the topside (sunny) vs interior (dark)spaces.

I think that you are going to have a difficult time finding a series of wrecks that are co-located enough that you can effectively separate out environmental differences from material substrate differences, all while getting enough bottom time to make the study conclusive.

As for locations, there are 2 locations that I know have good wrecks,
a) North Carolina has lots of wrecks from ages >200yrs to <50yrs. Most of them are deep and well off-shore (25-40meters and 2.5 hour boat rides each way). this makes trips long and expensive (most charters run $125US, not including air or tips, per 2 tank trip).
b) Guam, more wrecks than you can count, clear warm water, ranging in depth from 10-40 meters(30-130feet), mostly from WWI and WWII. close to shore, most of the boat rides will be under 45 minutes, many under 10 depending on the dive op you choose.

 

[chip104]

Pavel,

First off, I would like to say good luck with your studies. Seadeuce and Messier ellude to a good point, and that is predicting benthic settlement is not easy. You are only focusing on characteristics of the substrate, however, there are many factors that must be taken into consideration. Along with current, there is topography, light, depth, larvae life cycle, water quality (pollutants and run-off), salinity, tidal cycles,... all that affect how larvae will settle onto an artificial structure / region.

As you stated, you will be comparing your wreck sites to a control site nearby, which I assume will have the same water conditions albeit the substrate, however, you might run into problems when normalizing the controls (say for example: north carolina vs cyprus conditions). Analyzing all the factors in predicting settlement would be good work for a PhD or post doc dissertation, but it might be too much for a masters or undergrad dissertation. Not only, as Messier posted, you must choose your control sites carefully so that you may interpret your results in an unbiased and meaningful manner.

So like you said, I would agree that choosing one region to do the study is most important to limit all the other variables in addition to what you mentioned (time and cost). That way, you can at the very least assume the water quality to be the relatively the same around each wreck (for a more proper way, take at least 3 water samples at each wreck and control site) as well as request for tidal/current charts of the region. In addition, focusing on one region will allow you to cut down on the number of control sites. Even hitting 3 coastal countries might yield very different water conditions (however I am unsure about the Red Sea).

Coron, Philippines has over 10 WWII wrecks around the region. I know size and complexity is variable between the wrecks, however, I don't know how diverse the substrate materials are from each other (in terms of age and components since all are WWII era ships). Also, I can't remember seeing any plant species on them, only coral. Truk Lagoon may be another possibility.

Hope I provided some insight.

 

[silverfish88]

How about bermuda? I think they are quite well known for their wreck diving?

Hi everyone,

I'm not sure whether this is best suited to Travel discussions or Wreck diving so I'm posting in both, moderators feel free to delete as necessary!
I am a second year geography student at Cambridge University, UK. For my third year dissertation I'm required to undertake a research project and I have chosen something which incorporates my diving hobby!

The dissertation will assess the impact of wreck characteristics upon marine biodiversity. The plan is to dive several wrecks, counting species and extent of plants (no fishies!), and seeing if there is any correlation with wreck size, age, complexity or material. Obviously if the wrecks are in significantly different locations then samples will be taken near each wreck, away from it to use as a control for local species. Some sand samples might be collected too to compare any chemical impact of wrecks.

I need to decide where is best to go for this research, since the global collection of wrecks is somewhat overwhelming from a logistical point of view.
I am an advanced open water (PADI) diver, and I still consider myself a beginner so would prefer to dive easy-ish wrecks. My experience with wreck diving (did the specialty) is with Zenobia in Cyprus (I am originally from Cyprus so all of my dives have been there).

I would obviously prefer if I could find a place where I could study 8-10 different wrecks in one location (or close by), since that would make cost and time issues a lot easier!

Also it is easier for me if I can do wrecks in the Med or in the Red Sea since I would be in Cyprus at the time anyway. Zenobia will be dived as an alternative dataset (which on its own is useless since it's just one ship). I'll either be diving alone with tour guides/groups, or with my father (same qualification as me, more experienced, but not with wrecks). Obviously we'd still dive with a leader/dive guide wherever we go.

Does anybody have any suggestions/comments/ideas on where the best place would be to go? If it's in the med it's not really a problem to go to 3 different countries since they're both close, and cheap (relatively) to get to.

This would take place throughout September 2008.

Also I would like some sort of information regarding what the best way about collecting data is, since obviously the dive group would be more interested in observing fish/swimming around the wreck, rather than counting plant species etc.

Thanks so much,

Pavel

 

[desmarins]

Dear Pavel,

You should try Truck Lagoon, as there is a significant variety of wrecks there and - if not very different regarding their age - they surely offer a variety of samples regarding their structures and depth location. I am fairly sure those are growth factors to be considered.

Guam, as mentioned earlier, seems to be a good choice, although I have to confess I know next to zilch about it.

You mentioned that you wanted to try nitrox. I suggest you take a peek at the courses offered by IANTD and TDI, as EANx diving is better approached by technical agencies that have recently "gone recreational" ;Ç).
Here are the websites:
http://www.iantd.com/iantd3.html
International Training :: Get Certified :: TDI Diver Level Courses

PADI's nitrox is very good as well, but the other ones go much further regarding more "severe" dive conditions that might apply.

IANTD even has a "Technical Wreck" certification (one I hope to achieve sometime).

 

[Pavel Spirine]

Wow that's really helpful guys! (sorry I didn't reply for a while, I took a week and went over to the states to see my girlfriend.. and bought some equipment too! )

I understand about narrowing down the criteria, and am now really interested in perhaps looking only at comparing up/down current sides of the wreck, light/dark sides of the wreck.
In this case couldn't I compile a dataset of wrecks from different locations since it'll be something that can be sutdied on every wreck independent of environmental conditions when it comes to comparing with others (so it would be something like: 10% more marine life on light side of wreck.... this could equally apply in both caribbean waters as well as mediterranean?)

If not, guam seems like a very good idea judging by everyone's responses (since i realy can't be paying NC charter fees for 8-10 wrecks...) and the fact that they're all relatively similar age, I could concentrate on the above 2 factors, as well as maybe depth or size. (so 3 in total). Because I do agree that looking at ALL the factors I initially suggested would be out of my scope for an undergraduate disseration.

I'll be doing a small pilot study (just practicing doing the research) on Zenobia over Easter (since I can go there as much as I want realy for about a month. Also will try to dive some other Cyprus wrecks but to be honest I haven't got a clue what's available there...)

Thanks!
Pavel