Ring found on the wreck

[ccannon707]

I think “we” must include a certified local DM. This was the second person I know that talked about it, both local DMs

 

[El Graduado]

Back in the 80s I was training a group of INAH underwater archaeologists on how to use a new model of White's u/w detectors. I took them to Playa Azul and out into the water using scuba. It was always a good sport for gold. Sure enough, Santiago Analco pulled up a nice gold wedding band. After he showed it to the rest of the guys, I asked him to give me the detector and I went over the hole he dug and pulled up another gold ring with a diamond in it. I told him that it goes to show that just because you find something after you dig up where your hit sounded, it doesn't mean it was the only thing in the hole.

Another time, an American archaeologist and I were working on a wreck-site, fanning and dredging with suction hoses. He came over to me quite excited and showed me a gold wedding ring. I saw that he had a white band of skin around his ring-finger, and pointed it out to him there underwater. He had lost his ring without knowing it and then found it, not realizing it was his until I pointed it out.

 

[DandyDon]

Leave your jewelry at home or in the room safe, folks. Many finders won't even try to return found jewelry.

 

[El Graduado]

Back in the day, we did not have the internet, so finding the owner of a lost item was a nearly impossible feat. How do you find a tourist who dropped a ring in the water in Mexico without the internet?

 

[DandyDon]

Back in the day, we did not have the internet, so finding the owner of a lost item was a nearly impossible feat. How do you find a tourist who dropped a ring in the water in Mexico without the internet?

Agreed there. About the same as my found ring, now with me for 50 years.

 

[WetInPortland]

I think “we” must include a certified local DM. This was the second person I know that talked about it, both local DMs

The piers are not in the park, so I question where this requirement is coming from and who would enforce it? Of a more practical matter more in line with the "without being shot at" comment, where would a good entry/exit be, given the security perimeters?

 

[scuba5150]

A wonderful lady diver found the ring illustrated below and is trying to find the owner on FB. If it was yours, see the post on Cozumel 4 You
Or message her at https://www.facebook.com/dita.vonlouise
Or if you anti-facebook and need help, message me and I'll try.

Note to all: Leave the jewelry at home or in a room safe. Water makes rings come off easily, and of course there's the risk of attracting barracudas.

View attachment 539758

Semper fi, Marine, from a retired Navy squid.

 

[PBcatfish]

As far back as I can remember, people have warned that wearing jewelry while swimming, snorkeling or diving will put you at risk of being attacked by a barracuda. ...l.

In my experience, if something in the water is shiny, & about the same size/shape as something that a cuda will normally eat & it's moving quickly, it will get hit. Dragging a common tea spoon or combination wrench behind a boat is a good way to attract them. Larger objects of a different shape are far less likely to get hit, especially if they are not moving quickly. It's not impossible for a cuda to hit a shiny wrist watch, but it's never happened to me & I'm in the water around them frequently. A lot of regulator first stages are pretty shiny. I don't ever see cudas going after them. The same with D-rings.

 

[El Graduado]

In my experience, if something in the water is shiny, & about the same size/shape as something that a cuda will normally eat & it's moving quickly, it will get hit.

I caught a “hissing” barracuda once while trolling a bare hook on a stainless steel wire wrapped with surveyor’s flagging tape. We were using this wire and tape to tag artifacts on the 16th century wreck we were excavating in the Turks and Caicos back in the early 1980s. It was my first day off after 21 straight days of diving on the wreck site, 7am to 3pm daily. We had been living on canned food on the mother ship and it was time for fresh fish. I took one of our Zodiacs out by myself and was trolling with my yoyo, when I got a strike. I cut off the outboard and began to fight the beast, finally dragging it aboard after a good fight. It was over 4 feet long, and when it flopped about on the floor boards it began to hiss. I never heard a barracuda hiss before, nor had I ever heard of one hissing. But this one was hissing very loud. I didn’t have a Billy club, so I smacked him with an oar. He continued to hiss. I whacked him again and he fell still, but continued to hiss.

It was then that I realized that it sound I heard wasn’t him hissing, it was the air escaping from one of the rubber tubes of the Zodiac. One of his teeth snagged the fabric when I pulled him aboard, and I had a three-inch-long hole in the tube, and the Zodiac was deflating.

If I held my hand over the hole, I couldn’t reach the outboard. If I reached the outboard, I couldn’t keep my hand over the hole. As I dithered, the Zodiac was beginning to fold in two. I started waving frantically with my free hand to my wife, who was over a hundred yards away on the mother ship. After about a half an hour, I saw her look up and see me waving. She waved back and went back below deck...

 

[PBcatfish]

I caught a “hissing” barracuda once while trolling a bare hook on a stainless steel wire wrapped with surveyor’s flagging tape. We were using this wire and tape to tag artifacts on the 16th century wreck we were excavating in the Turks and Caicos back in the early 1980s. It was my first day off after 21 straight days of diving on the wreck site, 7am to 3pm daily. We had been living on canned food on the mother ship and it was time for fresh fish. I took one of our Zodiacs out by myself and was trolling with my yoyo, when I got a strike. I cut off the outboard and began to fight the beast, finally dragging it aboard after a good fight. It was over 4 feet long, and when it flopped about on the floor boards it began to hiss. I never heard a barracuda hiss before, nor had I ever heard of one hissing. But this one was hissing very loud. I didn’t have a Billy club, so I smacked him with an oar. He continued to hiss. I whacked him again and he fell still, but continued to hiss.

It was then that I realized that it sound I heard wasn’t him hissing, it was the air escaping from one of the rubber tubes of the Zodiac. One of his teeth snagged the fabric when I pulled him aboard, and I had a three-inch-long hole in the tube, and the Zodiac was deflating.

If I held my hand over the hole, I couldn’t reach the outboard. If I reached the outboard, I couldn’t keep my hand over the hole. As I dithered, the Zodiac was beginning to fold in two. I started waving frantically with my free hand to my wife, who was over a hundred yards away on the mother ship. After about a half an hour, I saw her look up and see me waving. She waved back and went back below deck...

Yea, they have pretty serious teeth. A zodiac has no defense against them.

As far as what they hit, if it is fast moving or wigly, it has a good chance of getting nailed. Shiny is just a bonus. Aluminum flashing, strips cut from a tin can, and even broken pieces of a CD all work well as long as you can attach a hook. A foot or so of wire helps too, if you don't want to get bit off. I usually go for #4-#6 single strand wire. $3 gets you 30' & it doesn't need crimps.

One classic cuda rig is to take a foot-long piece of old rubber tubing from a spear gun & run a wire through the inside with a hook at the end. Slash cut both ends of the tube. They work surprisingly well. Cudas love that wiggle

If you are going to try to eat a cuda, try to get one that isn't too big. In many areas the larger ones are believed to carry Ciguatera poisoning. Rule of thumb by me is to keep the length of the cuda no greater than your forearm if you want to take it home for dinner.

Also, they really stink pretty badly, but the odor is just from the outer layer of slime. Once you clean that stuff off, it is clean white meat below.