Wreck v Cave Diving

[DogDiver]

The Great Lakes wrecks are mostly intact. Cold water, fresh water.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

But further to your point... less frequented also means less stripped of interesting artifacts.

Here in NC, the dive boat operators are slowly cutting their own throats. They visit some wrecks like the U-352 on a daily basis and still use a grappling hook. They tear it up even more than the divers they carry to the wrecks.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The Great Lakes wrecks are mostly intact. Cold water, fresh water.

And often lower O2 levels.

 

[DevonDiver]

And often lower O2 levels.

The same is true for wrecks in Northern Europe (Norway etc) and the Baltic...

From what I've read, it's largely about cold water inhibiting certain bacteria that breakdown wood and metal.

Obviously, freshwater caused less oxidation also.

There are other factors. Here in the Philippines we have frequent earthquakes. These can do vast damage to wrecks. Last year in Subic a 4.3 quake caused the complete collapse of a wrecks' superstructure overnight (the 'Japanese Patrol Boat', for those that know Subic...)

I wouldn't want to be inside a wreck, or a cave, during an earthquake.... shudders

 

[beester]

Last year I was in Mexico in January. We had finished our dive on a sunday and a bit later in the evening there was an earthquake. All cenotes/caves were closed down for the next week by the Q Ro government. The zero gravity guys had some courses planned for that week but they were cancelled I believe.

Yes I don't think it would be funny :-(

I've been following some baltic project via presentations,etc (Project Mars the magnificent... look it up) and the graf zeppelin CV. Yes those baltic wrecks do look pristine. Low oxygen level, brakish water, cold, no light... My brother in law has a house on the baltic coast in Poland, maybe I should go there to dive

In our part of the North Sea we'll always have subs. Most of them have been in the water for a 100 years (ww1) the ballast hul is gone but the pressure hull, tower, etc is in many cases still very intact. They were of course very armored to deal with pressure. Problem mostly is sand, they tend to get burried. From time to time there are new ship accidents with resulting wrecks, but they tend to get lifted because they pose a navigation hazard, while in the past they would put a new permanent buouy on it and leave the wreck.