Photos: http://tiswango.com/photos/031019mp/

Conditions:

Seas: 3-5ft

Current: none

Vis: 50ft horizontal and 70ft vertical

Dive 1: Tacoma (sunk Feb 2002)

Sequence: Matt H. (lead &deco) and Charlie (liftbag)

Air: 21/35 backgas (3400 start 2000 psi end), 50% deco gas (3100 start, 1700 end)

Rock Bottom 1300 PSI

Depth: 120ft plan, 129 max depth

Duration: 30 minutes bt

Distance: Around the wreck with a drift deco

Deco: 80/1 70/1 60/1 50/1 40/1 30/2 20/8 10/4 = 19 minutes

Charlie and I geared up and ran through our checks. Jody lined the boat up and called out, "Dive!" We splashed in and descended in less than two minutes. I pulled out my light and found the cord under the long hose, ops we forgot the modified S-drill on the boat. The helium made it feel like we were on a beach dive. As the wreck came into view a welcome party of 100 Horse-eye Jacks came to greet the alien visitors. We landed square in the middle of the boat. I swam off to the starboard side and hit the sand. There were several large hogfish grazing next to us. We exchanged Ok's and I headed for the bow. Once there I looked back at Charlie and noticed something else swimming 20 ft away. A large 5ft Lemon shark (I think) with a Cobia on its left and another small shark on its right cruised by us. I thought to myself, "Wow, were swimming with the big boys now."

I stopped to look up at the bow from the sand, it was a good 30ft to the deck. We swam down the port side and noticed all the fish living in a pocket under the ship where the sand was removed away by currents. I found some Cottonwicks and a Black Grouper. There were two more Blacks at the stern along with more Hogfish and Chubs. Back around on starboard side we ascended to 115 ft on the deck. There was a school of Tomtates and Redband Parrotfish grazing on the deck. The original paint was still visible and wasn't completly overgrown yet.

Swimming over the holds filled with concrete debris, Gray snapper circled. I wanted to go in, but decided to take it easy on my first deco dive. Swimming up to the bridge which was at the bow, there were several corridors that would allow for penetration. I stuck my head and HID in and the light didn't touch the back wall. More penetration for a future dive. Swimming around the base of the bridge there were huge Midnight and Rainbow Parrotfish grazing, unconcerned at our presence. We circled up the bridge looking all the small fish, mostly Bluehead Wrasse and Blue Chromis.

We were at 82ft on top of the bridge. We had 3 more minutes of bottom time. I just hovered and watched the fish come back and swim around the wreck. These fish seemed very unconcerned at our appearance. At 29 minutes we thumbed the dive and did our deep stop. We pulled out our regs on the way to 70ft and Charlie watched me switched, then I watched him. Charlie pulled out the bag and prepped it while we ascended to 60ft. Charlie put the reg in the bag and gave it a puff so it would stand upright. Then another puff and let it go. It was visible on the surface, but the bag really needed to be full to be visible in the rough seas. Since there was little current, Jody was right there with the boat.

Deco was uneventful with the exception of some jellyfish sightings at 20 and 10 ft. We ascended and Mike grabbed our deco bottles and fins so we could climb up the ladder. On my way up I noticed something hanging off the props. There was thick black rope on both screws. I went under the boat to hack at it with a big knife, no luck. I was also afraid of breaking my head or tanks on the rolling boat. Jody jumped in and cut one screw free. He said we could travel 1000ft to our next dive site where we would anchor and have better luck getting the rope off the shaft.

Mike and Jody jumped in for their first dive on the Dema Trader. We followed along after a 1.5 hour SI.

Dive 2: Dema Trader (Sunk 10/21/03)

Sequence: Matt H. (lead) and Charlie (deco)

Air: 21/35 backgas (200 start/end), Matt: 30/30 AL80 Stage (3100 start, 500 end) Charlie: 32% AL 80 stage

Rock Bottom: 1300 back gas, end dive at 800 psi in stage

Depth: 80 ft plan, 78 max depth

Duration: 40 minutes bt

Distance: Around the wreck

Deco: 50/1 40/1 30/2 20/6 10/2 = 12 minutes

The anchor was dung in the sand just past the ship. We dropped down to the sand again and headed for the bow. A Saucereye Porgy greeted us and then took off. There were school of juvenile fish already congregating on the wreck. At the bow there was a large pile of chain with Grunts and Chalk bass. We swam down the barnacle encrusted side to the screw. There was a Smooth Trunkfish on each side of the shaft. I thought I was seeing double.

We ascended to the deck and swam into the hold. It was filled with 12 4ft diameter culverts and 7 large junction squares. There was a large 1.5 inch stainless wrench on the one of the culverts. Besides two small Stripped Parrotfish and some Masked Glass Gobies, the hold was barren. However in 4 years this will be a spectacular dive! In all of the lower holds there was red water, that looked like Kool-Aid. It was dissolved rust that hasn't been "washed" out of the holds by current.

Up at the bow there was a large winch housing small Bluehead Wrasse. The boat had graffiti all over and we had fun reading all the notes on the boat. We swam back to the stern and peaked into the hold to the engine room. The hatchway was a little tight for my rig and I didn't know how much room was in there. The engine still had all kinds of gauges it. I noticed light coming in from the side so we found a huge cut away on the port side. We swam into a crew room. There was still flooring on the boat and a open bathroom with a broken toilet. At the other end I found the passage to the engine and decided not to go in again.

There was another door to an equal sized room on the starboard side. I wedged myself in with the stage and canister light. I backed up and rotated 90 degrees and slide right in. Charlie tried it too and got stuck. He wiggled through with only a 45 degree rotation. This room featured a large floating wood table, stuck to the ceiling. It still moved and I wonder hold long it will take before it slips out of the hole and becomes boater's nightmare? This room had another exit out the stern through what looked like a machine room. There was an air compressor, tools, and metal pieces still in the shelves. We popped up on the stern deck.

Charlie and I floated over the bridge and looked it. The bridge was stripped out clean with nothing of interest to look at. We swam leisurely to the anchor line and thumbed the dive at 39 minutes. Back on the boat, I got out of my gear and Jody told me the GPS was programmed for the numbers and to set them up for their second drift dive.

Jody and Mike were going to explore "Joe's Wreck" named after Joe Talavera who was on the trip when Jody found an interesting profile on the sounder and marked the numbers. He and Mike were to check it out, then shoot a bag and drift off to another wreck. After 10 minutes the sausage came up and we stuck close as there was a lot of fishing traffic. After 20 minutes there was a drift fishing boat named "Reward" that was heading for the float. I kept the bow of facing the boat next to the float like a mother protecting her young. The boat kept about 150 ft away from the float, too close for me, but not close enough to make a stink.

After 35 minutes the fishing boat reeled up and motored off. With in minutes I spotted another 25ft fishing boat on plane heading right for us. I spun around and moved to put our boat between them and the float. At 300 ft they finally came off plane and turned to miss us. Gee, they were flying a dive flag with 4 people in wetsuits standing in the boat. They lined up their spot and through a grapple down on the Rio Miami, the same wreck my divers were on. Charlie and I watched the other divers suit up. Then one by one each diver loaded a speargun and held them straight up in the air. Then they all back rolled in at different points on the boat to so they didn't shoot each other I guess.

Jody and Mike surfaced 15ft from the other boat. They swam off so I could pick them up. I asked Jody if we were in the no spearfishing zone? He said that we were in the Key Biscayne Special Management Zone (SMZ). Hook and line fishing was fine, but there was no spearfishing, fishtraps, or lobster pots. I hailed on the radio ch. 16 for FWC and got no response. Then I saw a chartreuse liftbag surface off the anchor line. There was a stringer with two fish on it. I took down the boat's numbers and we headed in.

When I got home I call looked up FWC on the web and found the violations report line.

http://www.floridaconservation.org/

888-404-3922

I filed a report with the dispatcher, but didn't have all the facts, numbers, and locations. It was also 3 hours later. An officer did call me 20 minutes after I hung up and said that he was 90% sure that there wasn't a no spearfishing zone off Key Biscayne before Pennekamp park with the exception of a small area marked with white buoys. He said, if you can hook and line fish there, you can spear there. He said if he found anything else out, he would give me a call back.

With some help from Jody, we found the law, the no spearing zone, and the numbers for the wreck they were on, which was inside the SMZ. Info below. I must say, I find it hard to blame or be angry at the spearfisherman for poaching in a zone when law enforcement doesn't even know of its existence. Jody has been diving before the law was put in place.

At Oceanfest 2000 I attended a lecture on Marine Protected Area's which explained the life cycle of setting up any type of No Take Zone. First you have to fight to get it established. Then you have to educate the public of its existence because there won't be enough law enforcement to monitor such an area. After users start to see the benefits, they will promote the education, realize the value of it, and work to protect it. Once users catch more and bigger fish from the spill over outside of the zone, everyone will realize how they benefit from what was given up and 85% people will respect the no take zone.

Dive site:

"Rio Miami" 105' steel tug Nov-89 67' 30'

25 42.166 80 05.232

http://caldera.sero.nmfs.gov/fishery/regs/inter622.htm

(xxi) Key Biscayne/Artificial Reef--H is bounded on the north by 2542.82' N. lat.; on the south by 2541.32' N. lat.; on the east by 8004.22' W. long.; and on the west by 8005.53' W. long.

e)(1)(xix) and (e)(1)(xxi) - Use of spearfishing gear is prohibited.

The main web site is: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/

Matthew Hoelscher

954.558.8976 tiswango@yahoo.com

www.pbcrrt.org www.oceanwatch.org

www.reef.org www.toastmasters.org