Morrison wreck

[frogxman]

Hi,

can somebody explain how to get to the Morrison wreck in Barrie (I know I should take 400 to Barrie ;) ) and how to find it from the shore? Me and a group of divers want to go there to do the ice diving (weather permitting, of course).

Thanks.

[tinman]

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=15391&highlight=barrie+lake+simcoe

[Ontario Diver]

Look here

Map to Morrison (http://www.scuba2000.com/pdf_forms/morrison.pdf)

[frogxman]

Thanks! That is what I needed. :)

[frogxman]

Thank you guys again for the directions. This weekend we went to Barrie and dove on Morrison wreck.
So here is a report about this trip.
First of all we had to find the exact location of the wreck as the lines the divers were connected to were of limited length. Fortunately we were able to locate a yellow buoy marking a line going to the wreck. Close by was the hole in ice made by a previous group. The problem started when we tried to reopen the hole. The peaces filling the hole froze but at the lower edge. Taking in account that the thickness of ice was about 20" and that our chain saw had short blade that was a difficult task. We had to use a craw-bar and ice choppers and opened only half of the hole which was enough for 2 divers to squeeze in.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous - imagine ice diving in +10C and sunny weather - something unreal.
The diving was not bad too. We easily found a wreck using line on the bottom. Strange enough but many of us experienced regulator freeflow. That didn't happen last time when we dove in -15C (+winchill) weather.
We were spotted by the New VR Channel video correspondent so probably somebody could see our group on TV.
Of course after a dive we had BBQ. Great day!
But there were couple of things that I didn't like. First - my equipment and especially boots were covered with thick film of tar or grease. I don't know where it came from. Probably from water. I had a tough time washing everything after the dives. Second - The wreck is close to the exhaust pipe of the chicken farm or plant which is near by. People say that the bacteria level especially in cold water is very high.
If you ask me - I would not go there for the second time.

[cobaltbabe]

You said the dive was good but what condition was the wreck in? I don't think I would be diving there if the water is that dirty. Even though you had dry suits on it still can't be good for you. The BBQ sounds good though. I will mark that one as a no way for any future dives. Thank you for the recap of your trip.

[Marvintpa]

I believe the effluent pipes you are referring to come from the water treatment plant across the street from the entry point to the Morrison. The water coming out of them is quite clean. I've dived there ... more than a few times, and have never had a health problem arise from diving there.

[vlada]

almost fell from my chair laughing - some people come up with the weirdest stories. If that was true, i don't think we'd see up to 20 fishing boats on the wreck every weekend in the fall

the oil/tar in the water could have been from the oil that previous group used tfor their chain saw

IMHO, for a Torontonian, Morrison can't be beat for a quick evening or night dive - below are some creatures who live there



morrison macro (http://community.webshots.com/album/46967655lxwOpw)

[frogxman]

vlada once bubbled...
almost fell from my chair laughing - some people come up with the weirdest stories. If that was true, i don't think we'd see up to 20 fishing boats on the wreck every weekend in the fall

the oil/tar in the water could have been from the oil that previous group used tfor their chain saw

IMHO, for a Torontonian, Morrison can't be beat for a quick evening or night dive - below are some creatures who live there



morrison macro (http://community.webshots.com/album/46967655lxwOpw)

Well, I hope you are right. Really. But those "stories" were told us by the Barrie resident. I don't live in Barrie, so I could not check them. .:rolleyes: Also the effluent pipes are there. I don't know where they come from - may be the water treatment plant. The spot where the water comes out from these pipes is not frozen and marked by red flags. Would you dive in Humber river? There is a water treatment plant there too, so I guess the water is a clean. As well why to go that far, to Barrie. There is a nice and pretty unexplored wreck in Toronto harbour - Sligo. It is definitely closer. :out: The pictures are very nice though. I guess it was difficult to shoot them as the bottom silt stirs up very easily.
BTW, we found a lot of dead fish on the bottom. I hope it may be thrown by the ice fishermen.

The wreck is mostly the ribs of the old paddler boat. I hope Marvintpa will excuse me for using the link to one of his web pages. This page contains all the information as well as the pictures of the wreck.

http://www.geocities.com/marvintpaa/morrison.html

[frogxman]

Here is the picture from our trip - it's a show time!

http://www.renouf.com/icediving/DSCN0879.JPG

[Marvintpa]

Not a problem, yer more than welcome to post a link to my site here.
There are more pics of the Morrison at
http://www.scubaq.ca/ontarioscubadiving/morrison.htm

[vlada]

Well, I hope you are right. Really. But those "stories" were told us by the Barrie resident. I don't live in Barrie, so I could not check them. . Also the effluent pipes are there. I don't know where they come from - may be the water treatment plant. The spot where the water comes out from these pipes is not frozen and marked by red flags. Would you dive in Humber river? There is a water treatment plant there too, so I guess the water is a clean. As well why to go that far, to Barrie. There is a nice and pretty unexplored wreck in Toronto harbour - Sligo. It is definitely closer. The pictures are very nice though. I guess it was difficult to shoot them as the bottom silt stirs up very easily.


As a matter of fact, yes, we do dive Humber bay. in the winter though, 'cuase it is open water. Sligo would be nice - it is not a shore dive though and there are no regular charters

Morrison is much nicer for relaxing dives

As for the silt - if you stay away from the bottom, silt is not really an issue

Happy diving,

Vlada

[frogxman]

vlada once bubbled...



As a matter of fact, yes, we do dive Humber bay. in the winter though, 'cuase it is open water. Sligo would be nice - it is not a shore dive though and there are no regular charters



Well, I don't know how wise is that. Look at this for example:

Toxins in the Humber (http://webhome.idirect.com/~jleeson/humber_toxins.htm)

Do you have access to the official enviromental reports?

[vlada]

if you think it is not wise to dive some sites - by all means avoid them.

Just one fact though - Sligo as you know is in Toronto harbor - in the vicinity of downtown. As part of archaeological survey of Sligo in 2001, they did the test of water sampe - came out cleaner than the water we drink.

Not that i would advise anyone to drink it

They also did the awesome mosaic of Sligo if you haven't seen it yet - check it out Great Lakes Institute (http://www.greatlakesinstitute.ca/)

click on projects at the bottom and then Sligo - mosaic in kinda in the middle

[frogxman]

vlada once bubbled...
Just one fact though - Sligo as you know is in Toronto harbor - in the vicinity of downtown. As part of archaeological survey of Sligo in 2001, they did the test of water sampe - came out cleaner than the water we drink.

Not that i would advise anyone to drink it

They also did the awesome mosaic of Sligo if you haven't seen it yet - check it out Great Lakes Institute (http://www.greatlakesinstitute.ca/)

click on projects at the bottom and then Sligo - mosaic in kinda in the middle [/B]

Sounds very interesting. And soooo enticing.

[Boogie711]

And I worked out of the office at what I can assure you is definitely not a chicken farm.

The plant in question is a treatment plant... but I can also assure you that it's not exactly just 'water' that they're treating there. I'll leave it at that.

That being said, I wouldn't be doing my job as a good environmental communications consultant if I didn't say that the effluent coming out of those pipes is quite clean. I wouldn't drink it, because it's not treated for viruses, but it's filtered, strained, disinfected with ultraviolet light, the whole gamut, before it's ever released back into the environment.

Now - does anyone want to go on a nice dive in the Halifax Harbour? That's just a straight pipe from the toilet to the Ocean. And up in Sydney, you can actually walk across the harbour on top of the pollution... no word of a lie - it will support a 200 pound man. So comparatively speaking, heck - I'd say Barrie's harbour water is just GRRRREEAT!

[frogxman]

Thank you for the update Boogie. It is nice to hear a bit of information from the first hands. But I am sure many people would like to have an idea what ELSE is treated on that plant. ;)

[Doppler]

vlada once bubbled...



As a matter of fact, yes, we do dive Humber bay. in the winter though, 'cuase it is open water. Sligo would be nice - it is not a shore dive though and there are no regular charters

Morrison is much nicer for relaxing dives

As for the silt - if you stay away from the bottom, silt is not really an issue

Happy diving,

Vlada

You are going to have to bring that camera with you when we're working on that deco course of yours Vlada... I can't believe how you make Lake Simcoe look like the Red Sea <LOL>

DD