We're looking at a trip in early October in the Destin area...Can anyone tell me what "typical" conditions might be like? Vis, water temp, chop, availability of operators, etc...?
I'm a science teacher (and a volunteer with a number of science oriented groups) and I would greatly enjoy gathering first-hand data and experiences to relate to my classes concerning the effects (or lack thereof) of the "oil spill crisis" that they've been hearing about for months.
Thanks for any information you can provide.
I just discovered your post in the
"Basic Scuba Discussions Fourm" and re-discovered this thread ( I had forgotten about posting in it! ). Considering that I am a local, do most of my posting in here, and that you had requested opinions of some of the regulars in the other forum; I'll put my replies over here
First, let me say that I do not work for any dive shop or operator, nor do I work in any tourism related business. The following is based on my personal experience, the reports of other divers and my LDS. My "local" diving area lies between Dauphin Island, Al and Panama City Beach, Fl. I will try to give you the most honest report I can.
I did not get in the water between the beginning of June, and the end of July. LOTS of people did, and had excellent dives. In retrospect, I wish I had gone out as much as I could--- especially through June. There were not to many reports of oil from dive trips until July. Even then, they were kind of sporadic. Yes, we had oil wash up on the beaches during that time. Not miles upon miles of pitch black raw crude ( like most people envisioned a la 'Exxon Valdez') but patchy 'ribbons' of heavily weathered, reddish brown 'gunk'. The ribbons and isolated 'mats' were the wost that most places got. Much more common was a spattering of various sized tarballs. These are also the sticky, reddish brown stuff- - just broken down further into millions of pea sized bits. It was common to find them rolling in the surf and hugging the bottom where the waves would wash ashore during July. This was not EVERY beach, nor was it on ANY beach every day. BP had workers virtually everywhere - - hundreds upon hundreds walking the beaches every day with trash bags and stable forks. From a distance it kind of looked like the cleaning of the world's largest kitty litter box.
About a week or so before they choked the flow off to practically nothing, the winds offshore shifted, pushing much of the material in the gulf back towards the west. The result was that we basically stopped seeing 'fresh' weathered tarballs, mats, and ribbons a couple of weeks before the leak was completely stopped. I made my first dive back in the Gulf at St. Andrews state park, Panama City Beach, FL during the First week of August. We had some excellent dives, with no oil on the surface, no tarballs or mats on the beaches, and no bits of tar in the water / on the bottom.
Since then, I have logged 12 dives between Panama City and Gulf Shores, Al. Occasionally, you may see a residual clean up crew (I know they still have one on the gulf side in Ft. Pickens state park near Pensacola Beach, FL. . . . . but they look like they are actually sifting the sand looking for flecks). I have yet to see any tarballs while diving.
HOWEVER, I have had at least one encounter with oil while diving. I did not realize it until I was at home rinsing my gear. It occurred at the Ft. Pickens jetties, last week some time. When I got home, I discovered a couple of tiny bits of weathered crude (like a squished tarball) in the 'tread' section on the underside of my fins. The total amount of material on my fins could have been placed there with about 3 dabs of a Q-tip. It was easy to remove with a little 'Simple Green'. As best as I can determine, I picked it up while standing in the shallows at the beginning / end of the dive. Considering that I could not see any oil on the white sand in this area, I can only assume the bits had been buried by the tides. Wading around in my fins probably dug them up and forced it into the recessed bits on the underside of the foot pocket.
There were some reports of sea life being affected in some areas offshore (an underwater video shown on the local news website comes to mind) during June - July.
In my experience this past month, local populations are near normal levels. I have noticed an almost complete absence of arrow crabs from the Ft. Pickens site - - but that may or may not be related to the extremely cold winter we had.
Local diving conditions:
I don't have a lot of time in the water in October, but I can tell you what we're seeing right now.
Surface temps in the lower 80's. Bottom temps in the 70's range, depending on depth. Viz reports have been pretty good: 20-100' depending on location. (that upper end will be offshore, like on the Oriskany). The operators' schedules are beginning to wind down. Most are slimming down their weekday trips, but all seem to be running every weekend. I am going to try and do an inshore trip out of Destin on Tuesday- - If we get to go, I'll let you know what we find.
Check in the main 'Deep Dixie Diver' forum for multiple reports on local sites- - many with pictures. For example, in
THIS THREAD there are surface pics of us at Ft. Pickens ( the location where I got those bits of oil on my fins). Note that those pics were taken right at low tide- - typically much 'greener' and with lower viz than at high tide. Also note that the brown stuff you see on the sand in those pictures is sea grass, not oil.
Hope this is some of the info you're looking for! If there's anything else I can help you with, don't hesitate to ask.
Carl
