NEWSLETTER October 24, 2004, Issue 44
Members are encouraged to submit articles, dive plans and dive reports.
Visit club web site at https://www.angelfire.com/nj4/divers/
(If anyone missed last month’s DA Anchorline, the reason was bad hardware. It is amazing what a new power supply unit will do for your computer!)
DA Dive Log
DA Dive Plan
Next Meeting Notice
Monday October 25, 2004
Tom and Rich will offer cold water diving tips
And
Mike, the marine, will present a report of Havre De Grace and Beyond
At
730PM Mario’s Restaurant
710 Van Houten Avenue, Clifton, NJ
New Guests are welcome to attend this meeting
_______________________________________________________________________
Peggy’s News
From FishNews
NOAA Fisheries Turns Away Improper Shipments of Chilean Sea Bass to Enforce International Conservation Provisions
NOAA Fisheries is cracking down on imports of Patagonian toothfish that don't
have required documentation. Toothfish, also known as Chilean sea bass, are
managed through the international Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic
Marine Living Resources. Through participation on the commission, the United
States has helped implement an international system of tracking legally caught
toothfish through a document that must be certified by the vessel's flag
nation.
Recently, some vessels applying for toothfish import pre-approval have been
unable to produce the required documentation for their vessel monitoring system
(VMS) operations. All vessels harvesting toothfish are required to carry a
specific type of VMS, which must be tracked at least every four hours by the
vessel's flag state. In addition, a large shipment of toothfish was recently
seized because of unauthorized signatures on the catch's certification, a clear
violation of international conservation measures. Only the port official of the
landing/exporting country may authorize the landing/re-export of toothfish.
NOAA Fisheries is committed to keeping toothfish caught by poachers out of
American seafood markets. Foreign dealers who are planning to send shipments to
the United States may call NOAA Fisheries in advance to determine if the
shipment will be accepted. Such a step could speed up the approval process and
prevent shipments from being turned away when they reach a U.S. port.
Inquiries and questions may be directed to the U.S. toothfish import control
officer, Kim Dawson, by phone at 1-228-769-8964 or
by e-mail at kim.dawson@noaa.gov.
E-mail: mailto:pegdiver@monmouth.com
______________________________________________________________________
DA Dive Log
Dive report for the 10-08 to 10-10-04 trip to Havre de Grace
By Mike Granado i.e. Mike, the marine
On October 08th three DA divers ventured south on an extended dive outing to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Tom Gormley, Rich Mullen, and I, Mike, the marine, drove down Friday night for some time away from New Jersey. The drive itself went fairly quickly even though Tom’s F-150 was full of divers and dive gear. It’s an easy drive down I-95, and in about two hours and twenty minutes from Union, New Jersey, you’re there. We spent the night at the only hotel in town, the Super 8. A bit of advice; if you call ahead and the clerk tells you that they have plenty of rooms and you don’t need to make reservations – DON’T BELIVE THEM!!!@@@###. We arrived to find that there was only one room left and that it only had a single bed (apparently there was a medieval festival down the road). Also the entire supply of roll-away-beds had been rented out, so Tom and Mike, the marine, slept on the floor and gladly let Rich have the bed to himself.
The next morning we had breakfast at the local Waffle House (Tom ordered pancakes, but we found out the waffle house can’t make pancakes}. Then we headed down to the mouth of the Susquehanna which was only 10 minutes away.
Our first dive was at the end of Green Street. Simply follow Green Street to the water and park near the dentist’s office. The entry is a little tricky but not difficult. You need to scramble over some slippery rocks a few feet to the water. The entry is just to the left of the fence clearly marked ‘No Trespassing’. The dive is legal though.
I use the term ‘water’ a little loosely here, because although it feels like water it looks more like chocolate milk. This is definitely a mud dive. The mud is so thick that it is difficult to walk out; your best bet is to inflate your BC and try to float out a bit. The depth here is very shallow and you need to go out a bit to start registering any depth on your computer. Some of us made it to 10 feet, but most of the time our computers didn’t register. We didn’t find much out in the harbor and there were a few boats out there, also you need to watch the cross currents. We spent the majority of the dive near the rocks that ring the dentist’s office. Apparently this area was used as a dump ground many years ago.
Digging in the mud near the rocks proved a little difficult. First you’re only in about three feet of water, so you need to be heavily over weighted, and secondly there is zero visibility. We started hitting broken glass and miscellaneous items about two or three feet under the mud. After about three feet of mud you will encounter a tough layer of broken glass, ash, and debris. Beneath this layer we found more broken glass and debris. At one point my left hand ran into what felt like a metal object of a strange shape. But when I went to pull out the artifact I discovered that it was the small garden rake I was holding in my right hand.
We emerged from the dive dirty, but smiling. Apart from a rusted chain, a few iron spikes and some broken china we had also recovered some decent bottles. Rich found an aqua applied crown top with bubbles in the glass. Tom found an old jar with bubbles in the glass and a very smelly mussel wedged into it. PU! Tom developed a leak in his dry suit. He thinks it melted in the muck, so he went in search of some clean water to wash off. The rest of us cleaned up as best we could, dried out a bit, and headed over to our next dive site.
We did our second dive at the old train bridge. This site is slightly north of the Green Street site. There is a parking lot near the boat ramp north of the train bridge. We noticed that the boat ramp area is frequented by Havre de Grace’s homeless community, and although they were very pleasant with us, it would be a good idea to double check that the car is locked and all of your items are secured.
This dive site has slightly less mud but more fishing line than the Green Street site. There is more current which can help to clear away some of the silt you might disturb. A dive flag is definitely required by each diver here because there are many small fishing boats working the area around the bridge footings. We were told that the depth around the footings was approximately 30 feet, and we decided to head out to the old bridge footing to begin our search. The old footings rise about twenty feet above the water so they are easy to see and navigate. The depth around the first footing was only about 17-20 feet and visibility was about 6inches to a foot. This site, much like the Green street sight is frighteningly devoid of animal life. There are lots of plants though. We had heard stories of people finding gold jewelry and expensive rare china in this area, so we searched through the debris furiously. The shallow depths allowed for an extended dive, and although we didn’t recover any gold or china we did find another older beer bottle from a Baltimore brewer and a milk glass cheese jar.
After the second dive we enjoyed a light lunch along the harbor. Needless to say, Tom was an outstanding designated driver. Service is slow but friendly and we had lots of time to discuss our dives. We concluded that we had a great time and enjoyed our dives very much, but we decided to say goodbye to Havre de Grace and head a little further south to Calvert County.
The drive down to Chesapeake Beach took about two hours but consisted of mainly highways and a few turns, so it was fairly easy. One note about this area; it is fairly rural and there are no hotels nearby. Make plans for accommodations in one of the nearby towns before heading down or you may be spending the night in your car. Also bring lunch and drinks for the time you spend at the beach as there are no amenities at that location. There is a small beach just south of Chesapeake Beach in a location called Bay Front Park or “Brownie’s” beach by the locals. Here we traded our scuba tanks for mesh screens and shovels. We spent a few hours on Saturday afternoon and (after another night at a super 8) a few hours on Sunday morning panning through the sand below the Calvert Cliffs. Screening the sand produced numerous shark teeth and we each came home with about a hundred teeth each. Apart from the sharks teeth we also found ray teeth, porpoise teeth, shark vertebrae, crocodile teeth and fossilized bone. We spoke to many fossil collectors while we were on the beach (all of which were very friendly) and they reported that it is not uncommon to find several hundred shark teeth a day. The erosion of the cliffs is constantly producing more. The teeth here tend to be rather small. Mostly they are in the ¼ inch to ½ inch range, although there are some much bigger. But even at the smaller sizes they can be quite beautiful ranging from jet black to a rich golden brown. Considering they are 10 million years old, they are in good condition.
Rich decided to dive this location and try to find some bigger megalodon teeth. He reported finding portions of the cliffs that had been washed away, but no teeth. He also decided that gloves would be recommended when he sensed many crawling crabs in the no Vis mud. The depth here is extremely shallow and you can walk out in waist deep water for almost 200 yards. A dive flag is required here as we observed pleasure boats and jet skiers a little further out in the bay.
After lunch at the local subway we packed it in for the long ride home. From Chesapeake Beach to Elizabeth took us about four hours. Luckily we didn’t encounter any traffic near Baltimore nor at the bridge. We discussed our weekend on the way home and all agreed that we had a great time both diving at Havre de Grace and screening for teeth at Brownie’s Beach.
October 17, 2004 DA Halloween Underwater Pumpkin Carving Dive
Several DA members showed up at the Manasquan River Railroad Bridge in Pt Pleasant, NJ for the famous DA Pumpkin Dive. They included: Rich M, Tom and Norva, Mike, the marine, Ian and Maurizia, Bill G, John K, Brian Mc, Mike L, and Ben G. There were many other divers there as well.
It was a cool overcast day, but the water was still in the high 50’s and very comfortable for our DA divers and carvers.
The diving and carving started around 11AM and before too long, there were some interesting pumpkins worthy of the famous contest. Here are the results as reported by Pumpkin Judge, Norva:
1st place: Mike, the marine “x-files pumpkin”
2nd place: Bill G “DA pumpkin”
3rd place John K “scary pumpkin”
4th place Maurizia “scratched pumpkin”
5th place Ian “the last pumpkin”
All dive-carvers were awarded prizes from new fins, to DVD’s of the deep.
Brian took pictures and Tom and Rich did a drift dive from the railroad bridge to the Rt 35 bridge and back. After the diving, several members of the team went to Spikes for a warm cup of their famous clam chowder and a hearty lunch. A good day was had by all.
DA Dive Plan
(Any sales of gear are subject to terms agreed upon by sellers and buyers.)
E-mail: Tom Gormley 50 cuft low pressure steel tank, Nitrox ready, new condition, Mercury 20 HP outboard motor, 2003 model.
Meeting Minutes
Divers Anonymous Scuba Dive Club
Mario’s Restaurant / 710 Van Houten Avenue, Clifton, NJ
September 27, 2004
Members Present:
Greg Collucci
Vincent Chanona
Maurizia Corrao
Mike Dox
Edith Farmer
Ian Fryer
Bill Golubinski
Tom & Norva Gormley
Mike Granado
John Kelly
Larry Maleszewski
Leo and Connie Mazur
Richard Mullen
Al Nesterok
Charlie and Lara Padula
Imre and Erica Papdi
Don Van Dyk
New Members:
Vincent Chanona
The meeting began at 7:30 p.m. with 21 of 41 active members present.
Executive Committee Reports
Treasurer Report / Lara Padula
These funds are used to pay for expenses occurred running our club and to help offset expenses for various club offered activities.
Secretary Report / Richard Mullen
Last months minutes were
accepted unread. Club sent best wishes card to fellow member Gaby Salib,
who is now actively servicing in the army reserve’s medical unit somewhere in
Vice President’s Report / Al Nesterok
Al reported on Christmas Party plans to be held on January 8th at same location as last year. Cost is expected to run about $32 per person. Club members present voted for treasury to pay $10 per club member towards attendance cost. Members are requested to consider donating prize(s) to help supplement of number of gifts and prizes to be awarded. Reserve this date and bring along your significant other as this night promises to be a lot a fun.
President’s Report / Thomas Gormley
We are planning on doing lots of shore dives on Thursday and Sundays in October and December.
Oct
2~3: Weekend dive
trip to
Oct
9~10: Weekend dive trip
to Havre De Grace and
Sun / Oct 17: Halloween Pumpkin Carving Dive at MRRB
Sat / Oct
23: Clean
Mon / Oct 25: Club meeting – guest speakers may be Tom and Rich talking about diving in local cold waters in winter months.
Mon / Nov 22: Club meeting – Artifact and Story Contest
Mon / Dec 13: Club meeting to be held early this month
Sat / Dec 18: 100 Year Annual Dive on the Lizzie H. Brayton
Fri / Dec 31: Last dive of 2004 Dive Season
Sat / Jan 1: First dive of 2005 Dive Season
Sat / Jan 8: Christmas Party
Other Activities
Local Dives
Contact Tom, Ben, Mike or Rich for possible Thursday and Sunday shore dives.
Remote Dives
Nothing new to report.
Membership
Welcome to new member Vincent Chanona.
Web Site
We have a new webmaster Mike Dox to support the improvement and maintenance of our club’s web site. Visit club web site at https://www.angelfire.com/nj4/divers/. If members want to post club or scuba related activities they are encouraged to use email group mailing. If you have any club related photographs you wish to have posted on the web, send to Mike or Tom.
Old Business
Ian still has some club hats and shirts available for $20 and $24.
New Business
The NJ Historical Divers Association (NJHDA) recently arrested the 2 locomotive trains they have been investigating over the past few years. There is mixed feeling about this action, but many feel NJHDA’s action is a correct to enable this wreckage remain intact for future diving and/or possible recovery action.
Guest Speaker
Walter Jaslanek gave Power
Point presentation about “Sediment Found in
Minutes submitted by Secretary, Richard Mullen
.
2004
Divers Anonymous Calendar
Updated 09-21-04
|
Jan 2004
· 01/05: DA Planning meeting 6:30 p.m. at 6 Bros Diner Rt. 46
·
01/10:
DA Holiday
Party
7:30 p.m.
· 01/26: DA Club Meeting 7:30 p.m |
Feb 2004
· 02/01: Bottle Show,
· 02/14: 4th Annual DA Ski Day
·
02/29:
· 02/23: DA Club Meeting 7:30 p.m. Tom and Ben’s Boat Charters, Payment and Sign-Up, and “Ocean Conservancy” speaker |
Mar 2003
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Apr 2004
· 04/04: Manasquan RR Bridge Dive, 8AM · 04/14: Pool Dive for gear check and warm-up 9:15 p.m. Clifton YMYWHA · 04/25 Sunday shore dive in Belmar SRI · 04/26: DA Club Meeting 7:30 p.m. Annual Dues and Officer Elections, Rescheduled. “White Shark Research Presentation” by Dean Fessler |
May 2004
|
June 2004
|
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Jul 2004
· Local Shore Dives TBA · 07/11 Tom-Spring Tide Boat Dive · 7/17 & 18 DA Weekend at Dutch Springs · 07/26: DA Club Meeting, Topic, “Vincent Sarullo & John Bandstra “The Northeast Shipwreck Museum” |
Aug 2004
|
Sep 2004
· 09/06: Labor Day Delaware Picnic · 9/16 Thursday Night Dive, 9pm, Shark River Inlet, Avon · 9/19 DA 2nd Crab Dive, 10AM, Back Bay, Belmar · 09/27: DA Club Meeting 7:30 p.m. “Passaic River Sediment” by Walt Jaslanek
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Oct 2004
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Nov 2004
· Local Shore Dives 11/14 · Annual gear maintenance workshop TBA
· 11/29: DA Club Meeting 7:30 p.m. 2004 Artifact & Story Contest
|
Dec 2004
· 12/13: DA Club Meeting 7:30 p.m. · “Happy Holidays” · Friday, 12/31: Last Dive of Year 10AM
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Pink highlighted events are subsidized by DA dues