Mermet Dog Days: Trip Report

[fleep]

DUI dog days was huge. I was there Saturday from 8am-7pm. The volunteers/staff worked hard and the whole event was well organized-Thx Guys! I really enjoyed diving the different drysuits. It was great to meet a bunch of local divers and to see some of the people I have dove with over the summer. Everyone was having a great time, especially Morgan, who was so cute that no one could resist petting her, even while her owner was out diving-She has my vote for DUI's official DOG mascott

I hope to see some of you in the near future, mehbe even next wknd?? (mine lamotte, if i can make it!)

FLEEP

P.S. I must admit that I was overly-suspicious regarding the spoonbill in a previous post. There is no spoonbill conspiricy, but one can never be too carefull about taking these things on heresay... It seems that there are spoonbill a-plenty. I spotted No-Bill, and BentBill, and a few of them looked like they were going to come right up to me and filter my arm off!

 

[bsigmund]

Great Pics Fleep! As you may have surmised, I didn't make it on Sat, but went on Sun instead. After diving the DUI, I still don't plan on retiring my Bare suit anytime soon. BTW, After telling you I see the Spoonbills every time - I saw none yesterday.

 

[SteveC]

I had a good time at the DUI demo, but I’m not ready to retire my wetsuit either. I know it was a big task to take so many non dry-suit certified divers diving, but I never felt like I had my suit pressurized right. I was surprise that we got virtually no training. They just left the exhaust valve wide open, and it basically vented as fast as I could put air in, so not only was the squeeze pretty bad, it was fairly cold too. I feel that they may have done better to work with the people a little more, so we could experience the real dry-suit feel.
I did 3 dry-suit dives and 2 wet suit dives, and I felt much better in the wet suit.
But over all we had a good time.

Fleep, it was great running into you there.

 

[hudson]

Yeah, I had the same problem with the valve but turning it down a couple of notches sorted that out. I couldn't quite strike the balance between keeping enough air in the feet to prevent the squeeze and having floaty feet. Definitely takes practice, especially when shallow. Trilam was more comfortable overall.

OTOH, it's safer than I thought, at least with the drysuits I tired on. Experimented quite a bit underwater but couldn't get anywhere near a feet-first-polaris scenario even with the valve turned down.

DUI did a good job but I wish they didn't pack up so early.. oh well.

 

[diverdown247]

Holy cow, it's a fish that looks like the AV-8 Harrier Jump Jet!! Pics turned out great. Still wish I could have been there instead.

 

[fleep]

diverdown-wishya coulda been there. keep up with the school work!

bsig-sorry I missedya, hope 2 cya next wknd @ offsets

stevec-it was great to CU also! wish we coulda dove 2gether, guess it wasnt in the cards, I hope tadive w/ya soon-I'll never forget the current dive-was soo fun. Regarding the drysuit I can second what the other guys said, when the air is leaking out as soon as you put it in you need to rotate the valve towards 'close' a tad. Someone should have told you that. Also drysuits are more bulky and create more drag when swimming. After ~20 dives in my drysuit I am still learning, but it has become much more comfortable and I am starting to find benefits (outside of the obviouse thermal benefits) such as the ability to control the air in your suit to effect your trim and bouyancy characterisitics. For instance, in a silty area I let a little air in my feet and I can frog kick with my feet slightly raised and not stir up the bottom.

Did anyone find Mermet Mouse (I attached him to the traincar) wind sock?
Did my DUI pumpkin last the wknd?


P.S. I spoke with a biologist from UMSL who is studying spoonbill/paddlefish. Not only are they a freak-show but they are quite the enigma for biologists who are still trying to grok the details about these most ancient fish. I am really interested in these guys, now that I have finally seen some!

(< - - - - - - - - FLEEP

 

[SteveC]

I did see something tied to the train car, but I didn't know what it was. It was down on the ground at a corner.
I do see the pacman in your avatar now. BTW, I am the undefeated world champion at pacman

 

[do it easy]

Sorry I missed you guys I was there both days, but managed to only run into JJ. Now that I think about it, I think I did talk with FLEEP about the windsock, although I didn't put two and two together until now.

I had a blast at Mermet! Kudos to Mermet, DUI, and DAN for hosting such a great time. I'm in the market for a new drysuit, so it was great to try on all the different toys.

Regarding the paddlefish, I heard that they are an ancient fish that predate the dinosaurs, and they are only found naturally in two places- the Midwest and the Yangtze river in China. huh?

Edit: Paddlefish - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[bsigmund]

do it easy, I thought I saw you on Sunday. My brother and I were at the picnic table by the DAN tent. The paddlefish on this continent are slightly different than the ones in Asia. The Asian paddlefish get a lot bigger than ours. Both are ancient and both are endagered. National Geographic is working up a special on the largest freshwater fish in the world. Besides paddlefish, they are doing giant rays, giant catfish, (both in SE Asia), and a bunch of Amazon basin fish. It should be out this year.

 

[fleep]

I also saw doiteasy, diving nitrox doubles if I recall
I didn't think about it either at the time, whoops! I'll recognizeya next time fer shore.

doiteasy-do you dive lake michigan alot? i'm very interested in diving the lake this fall/winter, as my summer plans to dive there never came to fruition :/ I would like to dive somewhere around chicago or gary (since that is about as short of a drive from STL to the Lake as possible-doesnt have to be too close if it's polluted). Please let me know if you have any reccomendations for a location, time of year, an outfitter or anything else I should know. Feel free to send me a PM.

Thx,
Fleep

P.S.
Paddlefish are older than most dinosaurs. Paddlefish, like sharks, are mostly cartelidge, they have no bones except in their jaw. Paddlefish, like some sharks, are extremely sensitive to electromagnetism. They use their rostrom (nose) to sense electrical fields emitted by microscopic plankton-however adults who have lost their rostrom survive just fine. Their electrosensitivity definitely allows for passive communication and possibly also active communication since they can sense each others electrical fields. To read such small electrical fields they must have some ability to filter or cancel interference from stronger electrical signals. There is a theory that they try to avoid metal objects because of the interference-I wonder if this avoidance has been observed at mermet. They might have used their electrosensitivity to navigate using the earths magnetic fields since they used to travel 100's of miles to spawn before all of their natural waterways were dammed. I have heard the paddlefish do not spawn at mermet, those that you see are the survivors from the original 200 that were stocked. Someone also told me they were all males and then someone else said they only spawn in currents and that's why they are not reproducing. I have no clue if any of this information is correct, especially in regards to mermet's paddlefish-I would really like to know why the mermet paddlefish do not reproduce, there are hatcheries that grow paddlefish and it would be interesting to see what conditions they create for them to spawn.