My trip to Florida wasn't just to dive the amazing caves that I had only read about. It was also to attend the GUE Conference for 2017, hosted in High Springs. It was basically a four day event spread out over Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
On Friday I signed up for a field trip with Todd Kincaid and his wife Kristie. Their daughter Ginnie was along too, with several other kids. I met a lot of new friends: Dianna and Travis, Rick, Joe Hoyt (who worked with Todd), Tess (who would be my canoe buddy), Bachari (the only GUE diver in Senegal), and many others. There were two vans with about 18 people or so, it was quite a group. Todd's goal was to give us an overview of the interesting hydrogeology of the Santa Fe River basin. It was way more fun that than sounds!
On Friday I signed up for a field trip with Todd Kincaid and his wife Kristie. Their daughter Ginnie was along too, with several other kids. I met a lot of new friends: Dianna and Travis, Rick, Joe Hoyt (who worked with Todd), Tess (who would be my canoe buddy), Bachari (the only GUE diver in Senegal), and many others. There were two vans with about 18 people or so, it was quite a group. Todd's goal was to give us an overview of the interesting hydrogeology of the Santa Fe River basin. It was way more fun that than sounds!
The first place we visited was Paynes Prairie. This was a beautiful park with trails, boardwalks and the Alachua Sink. Here we learned that part of Gainseville used to be called Hogtown (not a very auspicious name). Alachua Sink was temporarily blocked and the basin filled up, and from 1871 to 1891 it had enough water that steamboats were able to sail on it. Interesting stuff! With the hurricane activity this year the water level was quite high. It made for some very picturesque photos. Some of the boardwalks were submerged.
We also got our fist view of a gator here. It was a long way off, so the picture was not the best. But it was still exciting!
Here was a great shot of our group, listening to Todd talk about the area.
The next stop was Devil's Millhopper. Unfortunately the stairs were damaged during the hurricane so we couldn't go down. But Todd explained how the sink
hole let water pass from one geological layer to another, which many scientists back in the day thought impossible. Nick asked what the large seed-like nuts we saw on the ground were and Todd said "Well
it's not a rock, I'm a geologist that's the best I can do!". Pretty funny. Fortunately a park sign identifying the Swamp Chestnut Oak was nearby, so mystery solved.
We made a stop at the Santa Fe River Sink, where nearly 900 million gallons of water disappeared into the ground. This picture did not really capture that, but you could definitely see that the river ended.
Todd explained that one of the biggest threats to the water systems of Florida was nitrification. Waste water from sewage, livestock and agricultural operations was treated but no nitrates were removed. There was evidence that normal nitrate levels in the rivers should be 0.1 or even 0.01 parts per million. But today these levels have ballooned to 10, 20, 50 and even 100 ppm. Not only were increased nitrate levels harmful to humans (especially children and the elderly), it caused a host of feedback issues. Algae blooms leading to reduced oxygen, and the resulting dead remnants smothering once clean sandy bottoms, and the darkening of cave walls. The picture was not completely dire. If the nitrates were removed, the system should clear itself out in 10 to 15 years. But treatment mechanisms were very expensive. The example Todd gave was around several billion dollars for a city the size of Gainseville, which was only about 125,000 people. Imagine a city the size of Miami. The other unfortunate thing was to watch trash get sucked down into the sink system, which you could actually see it happening from where we were standing.
Todd explained that the Santa Fe River Sink had been instrumental in changing prevailing beliefs of how water travelled underground. It used to be thought that underground water was thousands of years old, flowed extremely slowly, and cave systems had little effect. The Santa Fe Sink was used to demonstrate completely the opposite. A good step forward, but more always needed to be done.
After a picnic lunch, we were off on the second leg of the tour: canoeing down the Santa Fe River to visit some of the springs along the way. We put in at the 27 Bridge, and would paddle all the way down to Ginnie Springs. I don't have any pictures from this leg of the trip as I left my phone behind in case we took a dunk in the river. It had been a long time since I had been canoeing! Thankfully, my canoe buddy Tess helped me out.
Todd explained that one of the biggest threats to the water systems of Florida was nitrification. Waste water from sewage, livestock and agricultural operations was treated but no nitrates were removed. There was evidence that normal nitrate levels in the rivers should be 0.1 or even 0.01 parts per million. But today these levels have ballooned to 10, 20, 50 and even 100 ppm. Not only were increased nitrate levels harmful to humans (especially children and the elderly), it caused a host of feedback issues. Algae blooms leading to reduced oxygen, and the resulting dead remnants smothering once clean sandy bottoms, and the darkening of cave walls. The picture was not completely dire. If the nitrates were removed, the system should clear itself out in 10 to 15 years. But treatment mechanisms were very expensive. The example Todd gave was around several billion dollars for a city the size of Gainseville, which was only about 125,000 people. Imagine a city the size of Miami. The other unfortunate thing was to watch trash get sucked down into the sink system, which you could actually see it happening from where we were standing.
Todd explained that the Santa Fe River Sink had been instrumental in changing prevailing beliefs of how water travelled underground. It used to be thought that underground water was thousands of years old, flowed extremely slowly, and cave systems had little effect. The Santa Fe Sink was used to demonstrate completely the opposite. A good step forward, but more always needed to be done.
After a picnic lunch, we were off on the second leg of the tour: canoeing down the Santa Fe River to visit some of the springs along the way. We put in at the 27 Bridge, and would paddle all the way down to Ginnie Springs. I don't have any pictures from this leg of the trip as I left my phone behind in case we took a dunk in the river. It had been a long time since I had been canoeing! Thankfully, my canoe buddy Tess helped me out.
The first spring we visited was Poe Spring. Like I mentioned, I didn't have a camera, so the image below is not mine, and is from Pintrest.
We stopped and everyone got out of our canoes. We had our first "accident" where Fiona and Mike flipped their canoe in the shallows. Whoops! Mike got a good dunking, and Tess caught a big splash too. Good thing it was nice weather! Todd talked about Poe Springs when he was a kid. Evidence of the nitrification was quite noticable now. It used to be pristine and white. Most of us took the opportunity to do a bit of free diving to check out the spring outflow. It was very cool. The second accident was when Todd jumped in to take pictures of the spring flow for Project Baseline. Too bad he forgot to take his phone out of his pocket. Hope it dried out Todd!
The next couple of springs were cool too. Lily Spring was famous for a local named Naked Ed. He wasn't home when we visited, so we didn't meet him (or see him!). But the Great Outdoors restaurant near Extreme Exposure did sell a Naked Ed beer.
My favorite was Blue Spring. It was hard to describe just how blue the water was there. It was closed due to hurricane damage, but we were still able to paddle in to see it. Again, this was not my picture, and it doesn't really do the spring justice, but it does give an idea just how pretty it was.
Ginnie Spring was the last stop. It looked quite different coming in from the river rather than going in diving. Funny enough our flotilla of about 8 GUE canoes almost ran right over top of a dive team surfacing from the Ear. There was a reason our dive training included situational awareness! Too bad we weren't as good in canoes. Todd knew the two Divers and we had a good laugh when they came over.
Ginnie Spring was the last stop. It looked quite different coming in from the river rather than going in diving. Funny enough our flotilla of about 8 GUE canoes almost ran right over top of a dive team surfacing from the Ear. There was a reason our dive training included situational awareness! Too bad we weren't as good in canoes. Todd knew the two Divers and we had a good laugh when they came over.
Nick Bowman and Joe Hoyt did a good deed by salvaging several bags of trash that had been thrown in the river. It wasn't pleasant, but they did it. Nice work!
The field trip was amazing, but much longer than any of us anticipated so we were all looking forward to dinner that evening. A social was hosted at El Patio near Extreme Exposure. It was incredible just how many people had come to the conference! This was only a partial picture.
Saturday was the first conference day hosted at Florida University in Gainseville. The campus was modern and large. Jim, Joe and I helped Orie carry up some maniquins for the Halcyon display. I couldn't resist taking a funny picture of Joe.
Saturday was the first conference day hosted at Florida University in Gainseville. The campus was modern and large. Jim, Joe and I helped Orie carry up some maniquins for the Halcyon display. I couldn't resist taking a funny picture of Joe.
Here was a panorama shot before the talks started. Look at all those people!
Richard Lundgren did a great and funny presentation on an old Roman naval battle (the Battle of Egadi) and how GUE teams recovered some naval rams. Dr David Doolette did a talk on the Helium penalty (which many of us actually stayed awake for!). Andy Pitkin and Matt Vinzant did a really interesting presentation on the Weekie Wachee Cave with an entry that made the Ear at Ginnie Springs seem like a cake-walk. The pay off after that was the rooms inside which were amazingly huge and beautiful. Todd talked about Project Baseline using an excellent pre-done video to keep on track. Joe Hoyt spoke on U-576 and the Bluefields wreck discoveries off Carolina. Finally, John Kendall and Richard Lundgren talked about photogrammetry. John made a really funny joke at Guy Shockey's expense during the presentation that will forever live on in history. Talk to someone who attended the Conference for details!
All the information was superb, and it was followed by break out sessions with more detailed talks. Part of the photogrammetry presentation had a 3-D component, and we got a really funny picture of everyone in the old-style glasses. Looking good Nick, Jen, Jo, and Jim!
I went to the Project Baseline session where we watched the five winning videos from those submitted during the year from various projects. Of course my favorite was Project Baseline Saanich Inlet produced by Jo Hjelm, but the Bonaire video was great too. I also attended William Winram's free-diving tips presentation. William did a great talk in the main conference about freediving with great white sharks too. The most amusing tip I got out of it was using a scuba mask and sucking in the air from it through your nose when you needed it. I never even thought of that! The last session was on photogrammetry and I got a lot of tips from that as well. The three biggest ones were: strobes don't work, ambient light was not your friend, and start small. I also learned that John was a Terry Pratchett fan, as he made several jokes about "magic imps in boxes".
I went to the Project Baseline session where we watched the five winning videos from those submitted during the year from various projects. Of course my favorite was Project Baseline Saanich Inlet produced by Jo Hjelm, but the Bonaire video was great too. I also attended William Winram's free-diving tips presentation. William did a great talk in the main conference about freediving with great white sharks too. The most amusing tip I got out of it was using a scuba mask and sucking in the air from it through your nose when you needed it. I never even thought of that! The last session was on photogrammetry and I got a lot of tips from that as well. The three biggest ones were: strobes don't work, ambient light was not your friend, and start small. I also learned that John was a Terry Pratchett fan, as he made several jokes about "magic imps in boxes".
Another dinner social took place that evening which was a good thing, because everyone was ravenous. Like the previous night, much fun, discussion and new friends were made.
Sunday morning brought frost! No one told me that Northern Florida could be so cold. It was quite funny.
For Sunday, there were hands-on sessions. I decided to go with Brad to do some skill tweaking in the water at Ginnie Springs. Brad hammed it up a bit with this picture.
Five other divers joined us along with David Watson, a GUE instructor from the California area. We used the Ballroom area at Ginnie for our practice. It was pretty neat. Afterwards we checked out the cavern area, which was small but fun. It was an informative morning, and I got some good tips on back-kicks and propulsion. Ginnie was beautiful as always.
The last session of the day was Project Baseline and geotagging. This was put on by Todd and Beto from BAUE (Bay Area Underwater Explorers). Todd discussed what data Project Baseline needed, and the challenges going forward. The biggest ones were funding, and consistency of data. To help consistency, the idea of geotagging submitted photos was discussed. This was where Beto talked about a tube-like device he built from inexpensive parts, that could hold a GPS device and be deployed from underwater. When it broke the surface, it would get a GPS fix. Then these fixes could be automatically added to pictures taken, if the clocks were in synch.
It was a simple and effective method. GPS doesn't work underwater, and is a big problem. We did some "mock" dives out in the backyard, and here are some of the teams taking photos and using the device.
And here Todd got surprised to be a geotagged subject.
For Sunday, there were hands-on sessions. I decided to go with Brad to do some skill tweaking in the water at Ginnie Springs. Brad hammed it up a bit with this picture.
Five other divers joined us along with David Watson, a GUE instructor from the California area. We used the Ballroom area at Ginnie for our practice. It was pretty neat. Afterwards we checked out the cavern area, which was small but fun. It was an informative morning, and I got some good tips on back-kicks and propulsion. Ginnie was beautiful as always.
The last session of the day was Project Baseline and geotagging. This was put on by Todd and Beto from BAUE (Bay Area Underwater Explorers). Todd discussed what data Project Baseline needed, and the challenges going forward. The biggest ones were funding, and consistency of data. To help consistency, the idea of geotagging submitted photos was discussed. This was where Beto talked about a tube-like device he built from inexpensive parts, that could hold a GPS device and be deployed from underwater. When it broke the surface, it would get a GPS fix. Then these fixes could be automatically added to pictures taken, if the clocks were in synch.
It was a simple and effective method. GPS doesn't work underwater, and is a big problem. We did some "mock" dives out in the backyard, and here are some of the teams taking photos and using the device.
And here Todd got surprised to be a geotagged subject.
On the whole, I got more than I could have imagined out of the conference. The number of new friends and connections I made, along with the diving, the experiences and new information made it just amazing. I would recommend any GUE member attend at least once! You would not regret it.
On my last day, I just put my feet up. It had been a big week.
And the final night we held an impromptu barbecue in our back yard.
All good things come to an end. When I got back home to Vancouver BC, I was greeted by snow on the mountains! Winter had started when I had been gone.
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