NMDE Team Training Scooter Dive on Doris’s Deep

June 18, 2011 martin

Off

Observation Date:	18 June, 2011
Dive Team Members:	James Novaes and Martin McClellan
Begin Time:10:30am	End Time:12:30pm

Weather Conditions:	Clear/Sunny 63 degrees at 10:30am
Wind	Direction : N/A Speed: 00 Duration: N/A

Water Conditions
Surface	Glass Flat beginning and end of dive
Last 24 hrs:	Calm, no inclimate weather, beautiful conditions
Temperature:	Surface- 55F At Depth- 43F
Visibility:	Vertical- less than 30′ Horizontal- less than 50′ [ave]
Current:	Direction-N/A Speed- N/A
Site Depth Benchmark reading: 22 ffw

Animal & Plant Life
Fin Fish	Description : Rainbow Trout Quantity: 1 at 30 feet
Copepod	Est. Density: Medium above 70′ – None present at 70′ and below
Invasive Species	Mysis Shrimp
Mysis Shrimp	Est. Density: Low at 70′ and deeper none present shallower

Team Observations/Comments:An incredible and cooler than normal June day. Our winter weather pattern finally stopped just after Memorial Day weekend, May 28 – 30, 2011 where we had upwards of 12 inches of new snow at the highest Sierra Elevations. The lake is up some 5 feet since January of 2011 and one of our project objectives for this dive was to set a benchmark depth auger. We set this where the top of the auger is at 22ft and the bottom is 23 feet. We placed a sign upon the auger asking that it not be disturbed and listed all our websites. On past dives, our concrete block we use for tying off our dive flag consistently sat at 21 feet and now it is at 26 feet. Our dive took us to 208 feet where the visibility improved from 30+ in the shallow depths to that of 50+ below 150 feet. An interesting observation is that at 70′ the green rock algae that clings to the granite boulders really became pronounced and obvious and below this depth, there was none present – identical situation for the copepod shrimp – none present at depths below 70′ with the thickest concentration occurring between 30-60 feet. Temperature at 70′ was 48 degrees F. Total dive time was 105 minutes. 30 minutes of bottom time and 75 minutes of decompression.