Surveying new sites

[PhatD1ver]

I'd be interested in hearing from folks about the idea of finding and surveying new dive sites. Here in China, scuba has been slowly growing, but it's largely a 'rich man's sport' for the more affluent, and most go OUT of China to find diving locations (because they have to come home and brag about where they've been).

Sanya will probably never recover from the damage done in the last 10 years of concierge diving (taking untrained groups of divers out to the reef where they basically destroy it by collecting samples or stomping it) There are probably sites around Hainan that would be suited for diving besides Sanya's protected bays and beaches... but that's the point of this post.

Since there is no impetus from Chinese organizations to identify dive sites (or sometimes desire to imped that initiative)... what can private dive clubs and divers to to safely find and reconnoiter new sites?

 

[Redshift]

Talk to fishermen. They may not be willing to divulge much, but sometimes they say where nets get stuck, for instance. That may mean there is something there, either rocky formation or wreck. Fishing sites are usually also good for diving.

Check historical documents, news articles, talk to local people about possible wrecks.

Look at the charts, find spots with larger depth variations...

But in the end you need to get in the water and check. That's the only way

 

[PhatD1ver]

Okay, let me add to this, because REDSHIFT, that's the general idea. Unfortuately, fishermen in China don't get 'diving' really, most of the pearl farmers dive a little, but mostly just to walk the bottom below their pearl sets and make adjusments.

But, for example a couple locations here in China..

One an island called GouQidao. It's about an and a half off the coast of Shanghai. It's far enough out that some reports say the brown muddy effluent from the two rivers north and south of this bay have cleared, and especially the East side of the island has pretty clear vis along the shores. (unfortunately, that's also where a lot of the pearl farms are set up)...

Our plan is to maybe take a couple tanks with us on the ferry, find a driver for the day, and then just drive the east side boundary road and stop and hit any spots that look promising (and maybe as a few locals what they think)... potentially what we think we might find is a few coves kind of like Christmas Cove or Secret Cove in SoCal that are pretty hard access for a 'swimmer', but a diver might find entry above and below and swimming in below easier. Anyway, we figure if we can find four to five dive sites that show promise, then we can have our local club set up a weekend outing to stay on the island for a weekend and dive these location and gather more information. Then it could be used for regular trips (and maybe improve the logistics by being able to hire a boat besides the ferry that can meet work schedules), with no flying involved, it would make a great weekend out.

The other is up north in Shandong province, in Weihai, and little city where during WWI and WWII the allies used to tie up, in fact one US boat sunk by Japanese in WWII is no longer divable because the Chinese salvaged the entire wreck (which was sitting at 80 feet) in the 70s (to keep people off it).

But there are also similary nice little coves, the coast near Weihai, and the island where the old wreck were all are a lot like Catalina in the bottom and have colder, clearer water than places like Shanghai. But, dive shops are limited (nearest is Qingdao or Yantai)... so we'd need to rent tanks in Yantai if possible and haul them to Weihai to do the survey.

Also, it would be great if I could get some help from historians about where to look up wrecks (at least reported wrecks) from the wars and their location. We might not every find anything. But it's worth trying just to find reasons to dive besides going to Philippines all the time.