Posted by Wayne on May 18, 2001 at 21:15:45:
I just got the chance to visit Seabase Bonneville for the second time. This is a man made inland sea 40 miles west of Salt Lake City. The place is fed by geothermal springs of salt water (approximately same salinity as sea water) at 85 degrees F. The owners have dredged out the place and stocked it with an assortment of BIG fish -- tropical and otherwise. The bottom was 85 degrees and the surface was in the 70s with no thermocline.
While there I was petting the nurse sharks. They are 7 feet long and hang out in about 12 fsw. They like being petted, but everytime the strobe fired, they would swim away, I guess nocturnal critters do not like bright lights. Anyway, they feel different that I expected since their skin was like a rubber dotted gardening glove and there was no directional difference in stroking resistance. They felt very soft and blubbery around the dorsal, where I spent most of my time.
Also saw tons of jacks, tangs, angels, bunches of molies, and a couple of large puffers. Visibility is limited by algae to about 5 feet in most areas. But it is so thick with fish that the only problem was too many fish too close to photograph (hard to deal with an 18 inch fish 6 inches from the camera).
What a fun place to see wierd science. They only charge $15 for the day and airfills are $2. Nitrox is available. I used air.
Dive 1 was 1:07 with a maximum depth of 23 fsw. We still had air, but the mouth was dry and the camera was empty so we stopped. Dive 2 was 0:17 long and a max of 14 fsw. Just went to take a couple of photos of the sharks (we found their hiding place at the end of dive 1 after the film had run out). Hotel was at Snowbird (>9000 feet) so we had a long time to hang out on dry land at 4200 feet before ascending to the mountains! (Let's see, does this mean that my time at dinner was a safety stop?)
I just thought this might be of interest to a few locals. You gotta admit it is not normal to dive with tropicals 800 miles inland. In Utah of all places!
Happy diving everyone and hope your vis is better than mine was!
Wayne