samsliquidblue
Guest
Hi Everyone,
We were on the Cooper River from November 8-12 and had a great group from Hoboken, NJ and Atlanta, GA with us this time. The weather was so warm during the day while the water was so clear with vis at 10 feet easy. Jimmy, Coleen, Micheal, Tom and Tume were really aggresive divers on the bottom of the river. They managed to pull from the river Arrow Heads, several 5 inch Megalodon Shark Teeth, Ariculatus Shark Teeth, beautiful Indian pottery, a Mini Ball, some really large Great White Shark Teeth, a wonderful Ale Bottle from the 1700's, Milk Bottles from the early 1900's, vertebrae and disks from different species, a Giant Land Tortoise leg bone, and some unidentified Copralite.
This is the time of the year that a dry suit is needed to do the dives in the river. The temperature is dropping down below 65 and even if the day is warm and nice the wind cools a wet suit diver to fast before they can return into the water. It is also one of the best times of the year to find more in the river. The summer divers are gone and the river is turning over without many divers searching. Odds are greater that you will cross that artifact that you are seaching for. The wattage of light that you use is in direct relationship to the ability you have to recognize your finds in the river. A 10 watt is considered to be a minimun to have success of a grander magnitude. Anything above that is much better. I use a 35 watt HID and it is like a flood light in the other wise brackish black water filled with particulate.
Some divers like to dig to find things on the bottom while others like to travel between the banks in a zig zag fashion to locate their prizes. Hunting around the log jams and tree stumps with a combination of digging is a good idea too. Knowledge of the river and the past history will help in the selection of dive sites that prove to be giving. The river is always changing as the sand covers and uncovers beds from week to week. Bounce diving is sometimes necessary inorder to locate new sites and check on the progress of the current ones being dove. The hard clay, emerging gravel, log jams, trees stumps and changing sand all creat an interesting environment to dive and find fossils. The added touch of the large catfish, bass, mullet, eels, flounder and an occassional sturgeon fish and alligator make this a living aquarium too.
Come and try your hand at diving the river near Charleston, SC and see what the Black Water Fossil hunting is all about. Check out the site www.offthewalldiving.com
We were on the Cooper River from November 8-12 and had a great group from Hoboken, NJ and Atlanta, GA with us this time. The weather was so warm during the day while the water was so clear with vis at 10 feet easy. Jimmy, Coleen, Micheal, Tom and Tume were really aggresive divers on the bottom of the river. They managed to pull from the river Arrow Heads, several 5 inch Megalodon Shark Teeth, Ariculatus Shark Teeth, beautiful Indian pottery, a Mini Ball, some really large Great White Shark Teeth, a wonderful Ale Bottle from the 1700's, Milk Bottles from the early 1900's, vertebrae and disks from different species, a Giant Land Tortoise leg bone, and some unidentified Copralite.
This is the time of the year that a dry suit is needed to do the dives in the river. The temperature is dropping down below 65 and even if the day is warm and nice the wind cools a wet suit diver to fast before they can return into the water. It is also one of the best times of the year to find more in the river. The summer divers are gone and the river is turning over without many divers searching. Odds are greater that you will cross that artifact that you are seaching for. The wattage of light that you use is in direct relationship to the ability you have to recognize your finds in the river. A 10 watt is considered to be a minimun to have success of a grander magnitude. Anything above that is much better. I use a 35 watt HID and it is like a flood light in the other wise brackish black water filled with particulate.
Some divers like to dig to find things on the bottom while others like to travel between the banks in a zig zag fashion to locate their prizes. Hunting around the log jams and tree stumps with a combination of digging is a good idea too. Knowledge of the river and the past history will help in the selection of dive sites that prove to be giving. The river is always changing as the sand covers and uncovers beds from week to week. Bounce diving is sometimes necessary inorder to locate new sites and check on the progress of the current ones being dove. The hard clay, emerging gravel, log jams, trees stumps and changing sand all creat an interesting environment to dive and find fossils. The added touch of the large catfish, bass, mullet, eels, flounder and an occassional sturgeon fish and alligator make this a living aquarium too.
Come and try your hand at diving the river near Charleston, SC and see what the Black Water Fossil hunting is all about. Check out the site www.offthewalldiving.com
