Establish Depth Benchmark Area –

July 10, 2012 martin

Off

Observation Date:	12 March, 2012
Dive Team Members:	Mike Soldwisch – Martin McClellan
Begin Time:10:00am	End Time:11:45am

Weather Conditions:	Clear with a slight breeze
Wind	Direction : Swirling in Hurricane Bay but blowing N-NE Speed: 5-10 MPH Duration: Continued throughout the dive and increased in intensity throughout

Water Conditions
Surface	Ripple waves but no whitecaps
Last 24 hrs:	Calm in mornings and breezy in afternoons
Temperature:	Surface- 46f At Depth- 42f
Visibility:	Vertical- 35+ft could see boat anchors from surface Horizontal- 40-45ft
Current:	Direction- None Speed- N/A
Site Depth Benchmark reading: No benchmark yet set

Animal & Plant Life
Fin Fish	Description : 0 Quantity: 0
Copepod	Est. Density: Low
Invasive Species	None
Mysis Shrimp	Est. Density: None

Team Observations/Comments: Today’s dive by NMDE was to scout out a good location to place the Project Baseline depth benchmark and visibility station. Traveling about 4500 feet along the shoreline in a north by north east direction, we scootered the 40 -70 foot depth column observing as we moved along. There were several areas of heavy branch and leaves slowly deteriorating in the water just below areas of heavy aspen groves, creating an interesting shade/tint to the water of yellowish brown. What was most dominantly noticed is directly in the shallows off the parking on HWY 89 was thick algae growth attached to the rocks in the 5-10 foot range and when viewed from approximately 30 feet this algae had an incredible fluorescent green tinge to it. Something the team had never observed in 20 years of diving this site.