Posted by seahunt on July 01, 2001 at 22:11:57:
I've been thinking about this plan for a ship sunk at Catalina.
Really, there is an interesting potential here.
California has world class diving on the natural reefs with their abundant life.
Regardless of what Frank says, the wreck diving is no better than C grade and there's not much of it. Before the Yukon, the boats of Wreck
Alley represent little more than artificial reefs. It appears that there may be some drawbacks to the Yukon such as silt, and the vis is very often poor.
One of the best things about California diving though is the excellent visibility that can often be found at the Channel Islands, expecially the southern ones. Now if you could get some, not just one, but some good wrecks placed on the inside of Catalina, you could potentially end up with a world class wreck diving destination as well as the fantastic natural reef diving.
Could you imagine West End Dive Center at Isthmus selling Tri-Mix and tech gear?
There is actually little suitable area for this project on the front side, but enough. If you could get a/some smaller vessels in the shallower parts of Isthmus for perhaps training and beginners to get a look at a wreck. If you could get a big ship or two that might even be past sport depth (out in currents to foster growth), but appropriate for tech/wreck diving, you could get some of the best wreck diving in the world based on conditions.
That is an ambitious project, but it has incredible potential. A lot more boats go out of SD based on the Yukon.
Wreck diving would never replace the traditional reef diving of California, but it would add to it very nicely. There are a fantastic number of divers in the LA area and if even a small percent of them got into that kind of tech diving, it could change the local dive industry. Considering the current draw of the Yukon, Catalina could easily become a major dive destination for a completely new reason.
While I think that some of the ideas of DIR are definately more adapted to the diving it came from, (cave, deep tech/wreck), well, bring that kind of diving here and it might well have more potential here than where it started out......... That's assuming you could get some good wrecks.... There is a ton of potential here. Just off the wall, the water is clear enought there quite often that a well positioned wreck, could be viewed from the surface. How would you like to see it at night from a boat, if there were some lights placed on the wreck?
One of the things that annoys me about DIR is that it seems to want to bring a competitiveness to scuba that we have seen start to dominate surfing. Well, could you imagine competitions, like a team 'cannon carry' through a sunken ship? Given some good wrecks and some good vis, you could see the X game cameras go underwater, something no one has figured out how popularize for tv yet. Maybe there is some money to be found to support this in corporate coffers.
These are just some odd thoughts I had on the topic and far from what a lot of the real potentials are. While I still say DIR in its present form is not optimally adapted to California reef diving, a project like this might well adapt a lot of California diving to DIR.
Enjoy, seahunt
PS. As for F&G worries about fish movement from natural habitat, having well studied the kelp reefs I doubt it would be a problem. While the answer would best be taken from current research, the statements by Wheeler J. North describe the fish population of the kelp forest as being dependant on available cover and that all cover is utilized. All things being equel, it seems most likely that the fish would never quit utilizing reef that is available, even if a wreck were nearby.
PPS. Do this, and there are going to be some accidents, but if you want to be the safest you can be, stay home and watch it on tv.