Scuba Adventures in REALLY cold water
After spending a number of years as a specimen collector for
the Monterey Bay Aquarium I thought I was prepared for cold water diving. The
water temperatures in the Monterey area dip down into the 40’s in the winter and I was always fairly warm in the 10mm custom commercial suits I had worn
during my years as a commercial diver in Southern California. I assumed working as a diver in Alaska shouldn’t be a problem, after all I had
survived many scuba adventures and although I didn’t have many scuba classes to
my name at the time, I had a great deal of experience.
The reality of my decision literally hit me in the face when
I stepped out of the Anchorage airport into a blast of incredibly cold air. I
had arrived by plane, to catch the train, to get to the boat which would
transport me to the salmon hatchery in Prince William Sound where I would be
working as a diving supervisor. Unfortunately
a blinding snowstorm trapped us at a nearby hatchery for three days. During
this time I tried to entertain myself as best as I could and decided to walk
down to the boat docks to check out the water. Once on the dock I placed my hand into the 33 degree water to get a “feel for it”. One would think if it
was brutally cold the first sensation would be of pins, needles, and pain but
this was not the case. I didn’t feel anything at first, no pain, no shock, so I
left my hand in the water. Not so bad I thought to myself. However, before long
I realized I was not breathing correctly and my heart was beginning to race.
Soon after my body was becoming numb and I realized the water was so cold it
was sucking the life out of me through my hand! Not much pain, just a major
malfunction of my entire body from the inside out. I began to question my
decision to pursue adventure scuba in Alaska!
A couple of weeks later it was time for my first dives in
really cold water to set up some net pens. Andrea, the assistant manager, was
leading the dive to show me around. She wore a dry suit but I went with my
commercial wetsuit. After all if I had to pee I wouldn’t want to be in a dry suit!
Although the first shock was a bit much, my trusty wetsuit actually kept me warm and I was immediately overwhelmed by the incredible clarity of the water. Apparently in Alaskan winters the
sunlight is so limited, and the water is so cold, plankton cannot live which made the visibility in excess of 400 ft! Additionally, as with many Arctic or
Antarctic environments, the organisms were of gigantic size. The Sunflower stars were 6 ft across and the Plume anemones were 4 ft high!
I came to enjoy the winter dives and missed them when the
summer dives, although much warmer (upper 50’s), became dodgeball sessions with
gigantic Lions Mane jellyfish and very large salmon in 5-10ft visibility. We did have spectacular summer dives but
these, oddly enough, were located in the lake that was used as a water source for
the hatchery. Our job was to clean the screens leading into the pipes and when
we got into the 60 degree water we were shocked to find the visibility was
well over 200ft. In many ways it was like flying through the air in this
incredibly calm and clear water. I can remember laying on my back in 25 ft of
water and watching the Bald Eagles sparring and cavorting in the air above us.
I spent 9 months in Alaska and fell in love with the
unforgiving environment, both in and out of the water. Two months after leaving
Alaska I found myself heading to Hawai’i where all of my experience and scuba
adventures would gel and my career as a scuba instructor would begin.