Photography and TX Fish

Texas lakes and rivers almost all have fish and aquatic life. The best way to remember the wildlife you encounter underwater is to take photos while you dive.

Underwater Photography
There are many cameras available for divers, from film to digital and D-SLRs (Digital Single Lens Reflex). The priority for your camera is for it to have a water-tight case accessory that is made for scuba diving. This case creates an air-tight seal so your camera stays dry as you dive, and it still allows you to use the camera.

Once you purchase a camera and case, be sure to keep the O-ring seal clean and in place. If the O-ring has just a single strand of hair on it, the seal could leak and your camera could get flooded. Below is a photo of this O-ring seal.

On left: Red O-ring providing water-tight seal on camera case. (Source: NNC¹)

For more information about photography, you may want to take a course about it through PADI. PADI has a Digital Underwater Photographer course to learn about choosing the right camera and refining your underwater photography skills.

Fish in Texas
There are many kinds of fish in Texas. Here are the fish and other aquatic life available at the dive sites I have already mentioned.

• Aquarena Springs (original post)
• fountain darter, San Marcos salamander, black bass, sunfish, perch, gar, crawfish, cichlid, turtles; Check out Scuba.Linda's Flickr stream of aquatic life at Aquarena.

Fish in Aquarena's Aquarium, representative of fish in the Springs (taken by me)

Cichlid in Aquarena's Aquarium (taken by me)

• Flower Garden Banks (original post)
• angelfish, goatfish, moray eel, wrasse, goby, damselfish, and so much more, since it is a coral reef. See the entire list at the FGB website.
• San Solomon Springs (original post)
• spiny softshell turtles, Mexican tetras, channel catfish, Comanche Springs Pupfish, Pecos Gambusia (mosquito fish), crayfish, Roundnose minnow, sunfish

Tetras in San Solomon Springs (Source: Flickr²)

• Athens Scuba Park (original post)
• There are very few fish here, if any, because the lake used to be a clay pit, and the pH of the water could be uninhabitable for many fish. The lake is best known for the sunken items that you can explore and photograph, because of the great visibility.
• Lake Travis (original post)
• catfish, bass, trout, crappie, sunfish, bluegill, carp, shiner, minnow, gar, freshwater eel, Texas cichlid; see a fish identification chart for variants of these fish.

Catfish in Lake Travis (Source: FM Dive News³)

And in all my future posts, I'll provide you with photos of fish you can see, and let you know what species to expect at the dive sites.


Footnotes

[1] Naked Nimamok’s Corner. (n.d.). Retrieved March 30, 2011, from http://nimamok.wordpress.com/

[2] Rebecca dlghtflyswt. (n.d.). Flickr. Retrieved March 30, 2011, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlghtflyswt/63640348/in/photostream/

[3] Photo Archive. (2007). Fargo-Moorhead Dive News. Retrieved March 30, 2011, from http://home.earthlink.net/%7Efmdivenews/fmdn-photo-archive.html

Scuba Basics and Knowledge for Non-Divers

Since I recently received a comment from a non-diver, I'd like to answer her questions, and provide other non-divers with some information about diving in general. Thanks for your interest, and I hope if you're interested in diving, this post can help you learn more and get started on training to dive!

Basics of Scuba
Scuba diving is all about swimming underwater for long periods of time to enjoy the underwater world. You can dive for an hour or more, depending on how deep you dive. The deeper you dive, the faster the oxygen in your tank gets used, because of the higher water pressure.

Scuba Certification
There are multiple organizations that provide scuba courses and certifications. For your first course, you will have to read all about scuba diving, safety regulations, rules, and the technical aspects of diving. You want to be sure and understand how your body changes as you dive! Here are agencies that you can take courses through:

• Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI)
• National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI)
• Professional Diving Instructors Corporation (PDIC)

To find a scuba shop to get PADI, NAUI, or PDIC scuba certified, search "PADI scuba in city, state" using Google or another search engine (change "PADI" to your preferred agency). There are more agencies than listed above, but these three are the most known. I trained using PADI, and it has been a great experience.

Scuba Equipment
To dive, you need items to help you navigate, breathe, and keep track of time and direction. The gear you will need includes personal gear and more expensive gear to rent at first.

Personal equipment you should purchase when you first start to dive:

• Mask - basically goggles to cover your eyes and your nose
• Snorkel - used for when you surface swim, to preserve your oxygen in your tank
• Fins - the flippers for your feet to help you propel through water
• Booties - the cloth-type shoes for your feet so the plastic fins don't give you blisters, and for use when exiting your dive. It is not easy to walk in fins, so the booties serve as walking shoes.

Personal Scuba Gear (Source: Snorkeling Packages Blog¹)

Gear you can rent at first, and once you become a regular diver and can afford it, can purchase:

• Oxygen Tank - the cylinder filled with compressed oxygen and some other gases, which is your source of breathing while diving.
• BCD (Buoyancy Control Device) - a "vest" that you wear that allows you to carry your oxygen tank and other devises; you can inflate it with air to help you float, and then deflate it when you dive.
• Regulator - this is what attaches to the oxygen tank, and allows you to inhale its oxygen and exhale bubbles into the water through the mouthpiece. It also connects to the BCD to help the BCD inflate.
• Gauges - the compass, dive computer, clock, and air gauge can all be considered your gauges. These devises monitor your direction, depth, time spent underwater, amount of oxygen left in your tank, and more.

Scuba Gear (Collage made by Amanda J., with photos from DSE²)

Visit Dive Shops
Scuba diving all begins with the basics, from the gear and their functions to the options for certifications. The best way to learn about scuba is to start by visiting your local dive shop. Divers (including myself!) love to explain scuba equipment, how training courses work, and their diving experiences.

Footnotes

[1] Promate Scuba Dive Fins Mask Snorkel Boots Gear Set. (2011, February 27). Snorkeling Packages. Retrieved March 29, 2011, from http://allplayoutedit.blogspot.com/2011/02/promate-scuba-dive-fins-mask-snorkel.html

[2] Feature Scuba Equipment. (n.d.). Divers Scuba Equipment. Retrieved March 29, 2011, from http://diversscubaequipment.com/index.asp

Lake Travis

About 20 miles Northwest of Austin, TX is Lake Travis. The lake features 270 miles of shoreline with an average depth of 62 feet, according to LakeTravis.com¹.

Why to Dive at Travis
Lake Travis has a variety of dive areas, and offers divers a chance to experience many of Texas' great aquatic creatures. One of those dive areas is Windy Point Park², where you can

...find boat wrecks and unique metal sculptures of a scuba diver, a sea turtle, a shark and a manatee along with ...a jet ski, some small boats, a larger sailboat, a Pinto, and more!

Windy Point Park on Lake Travis is shown below (a bit above the red "A" in the center), and note that this map shows only a portion of the lake.

Source: Google Maps

Transportation on Travis
The business Lake Travis Scuba³ is one option, because they provide boat transportation to multiple dive areas on Lake Travis. Their boat, called the Giant Stride, is "a 30-foot Pontoon Boat customized for scuba diving."

Local Divers
You can also find dive buddies for your Lake Travis dive trip by contacting local dive groups. One such group is the Bay Area Divers club, which has members always diving and welcoming newcomers to join in. Two other dive groups you can check out are the CHUM Club and the Austin Scuba Club.

Parks and Amenities
The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and Travis County Parks maintain 15 park areas on Lake Travis.  A map and descriptions of these 15 parks is on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

Resources Summary

• Lake Travis history, numeric details (length, depth, etc), and recreation links: http://www.laketravis.com/main_recreation.htm
  
• Official Windy Point Park website, featuring an underwater map, current events, lake conditions, and more: http://www.windypointpark.com/default.asp
  
• A map of Windy Point Park and directions to the area (a PDF): http://www.laketravisscuba.com/images/LakeTravis-Windy_Point%20Map.pdf
  
• Lake Travis Scuba - the company providing boat transportation and other services: http://www.laketravisscuba.com/index.html
  
• Public access facilities on Lake Travis - Fifteen parks with details: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/recreational/lakes/travis/access.phtml

Footnotes

[1] All About Lake Travis. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2011, from http://www.laketravis.com/main_about.htm

[2] Windy Point Park. (n.d.). Retrieved March 25, 2011, from http://www.windypointpark.com/scuba.asp
[3] The Boat. (n.d.). Lake Travis Scuba. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from http://www.laketravisscuba.com/about.html

Silo for Deep Diving

Midland, Texas is home to a unique silo that used to hold a missile. Now the silo is filled with water and is used for diving.

Diving in the Silo

The silo's deep "pool" is used as a deep dive site, where divers can work on advanced scuba certifications. The silo is a good use as a dive site to gain more experience, assuming you are already working on (or have) one of these certifications:

• Deep Diver (60-130 ft / 18-40 meters)
• Night Diver
• Altitude Diver (diving 1000+ ft above sea level)
• Mixed-gas Diving Specialties
• Rebreather Specialties

Silo Good for Refining Skills
The Family Scuba Center maintains the silo, known officially as Dive Valhalla. From the official Valhalla website¹, the owners recommend

...advanced certification and cold water experience as well as familiarity with altitude diving procedures and good buoyancy control.

Also, before you dive, make sure you can climb up and down 30 feet of stairs with your dive gear on, because that is how you enter and exit the water in the silo, as seen below.

Source: Local Diving USA²

Silo Details
From the Valhalla website, the silo has a "constant 68 degree air temperature" with consistent lighting as well. The Valhalla website¹ explains,

...The silo is 60' in diameter ... Mark and Linda Hannifin, owners of Family Scuba Center, feel that the main draw for divers is the exclusivity and uniqueness of the site. ... It's a BTDT (been there, done that) dive that makes for an interesting logbook entry and a definite conversation starter..... (you dove where??). 

So whether you're searching for unique dive sites or working on a certification, this missile silo can be a great opportunity.


Footnotes

[1] Gone to Valhala. (n.d.). Family Scuba Center Inc. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from http://www.familyscuba.com/Valhalla/AboutValhalla/GoneToValhala/tabid/67/Default.aspx

[2] David Prichard. (n.d.). Texas Missile Silo. Local Diving USA. Retrieved March 25, 2011, from http://www.dtmag.com/dive-usa/locations/TexasMissileSiloTX.html

Cloudy Lake? No Problem

Visibility at a Dive Site
Suppose you are expecting to have good visibility at a Texas lake, but when you arrive the visibility has decreased. Maybe it rained, or a lot of swimmers stirred up the lake's bottom. You still want to dive, so what do you do? 

I recommend that you practice your underwater navigation skills. A cloudy lake should not stop you from diving, as long as you still feel safe. Don't dive if there is no visibility or the water is very dark.

Lake Navigation with a Compass
To navigate underwater, you need to have a compass and a final destination. Here are the steps to take to reach your destination, even with low water visibility.

1. Before you descend, locate the direction of your final destination. Most man-made items put underwater as an attraction have a buoy to indicate their location, so you can use the buoy as your destination. Also note the distance to your destination.
    
   
2. Facing the final destination, align your compass to that direction. (See Figure 1 below.) Note and remember the degree that the compass needle points to. If your compass can rotate (called the Turntable Housing in Figure 2 below) then use the turntable to mark the degree of the needle.
    
   
3. Now descend using proper scuba rules. It is okay to rotate your body during descent.
    
   
4. Once at a comfortable depth, look at your compass while the compass is aligned with your body, the same way as in step #2.
    
   
5. Align the compass needle to the degree found in step #2, by rotating your body with your compass, not just by rotating your compass alone.
    
   
6. Swim in the direction that keeps the needle steady on the degrees needed. Swim in a straight line, and check that the compass is still on track every minute or so. If you see that you are no longer swimming in the correct direction, change your course.
    
   
7. Pay attention to the distance you have swam. If you had gotten off course at all in step #6, be careful to not swim too far and pass your target. If you think you've gone to far, return to the surface of the lake and make a new heading (start over at step #1).
    
   
8. You will eventually reach your destination, such as a sunken airplane or whatever you chose to dive to.

Figure 1: Align Compass with your Sight (Source: IDC¹)

Figure 2: Compass (Source: ABC of Hiking²)

Clear Lake for Practice
Remember too that navigating using a compass takes practice! Use the steps above to practice in a clear lake, so you can use your long-distance sight as a backup during your dive. A very clear lake to practice navigation in is at Athens Scuba Park, as shown below.

Source: Athens³

So remember, wherever you dive in Texas, don't get disappointed if low visibility sneaks up on you! Your dive will turn into a great opportunity to practice your navigation, and you can still make your dive fun once you reach your destination.

Footnotes

[1] PADI Specialties. (2010). IDC Thailand. Retrieved March 24, 2011, from http://www.idcthailand.net/nl/specialty-cursussen

[2] Compass Navigation & Using a Compass. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2011, from http://www.abc-of-hiking.com/navigation-skills/compass-navigation.asp

[3] Athens Scuba Park. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2011, from http://www.athensscubapark.com/default.asp