As 2018 was coming to a close, Project Baseline put out a call to submit any data to the database from any of the existing stations. GUE-BC has maintained a station at Britannia Beach, and Vlad and I decided to get out there and recover the temperature sensor he developed. Back in 2017, we did the same thing. A lot of data came out of the sensor, and you could see it by looking at the database entry for the site. The spikes in data were very pronounced!
Project Baseline's mission was to collect temperature and visibility readings from citizen science divers to build a "baseline" view of the oceans and other bodies of water. This year was very exciting as the database had been upgraded to support a more modern platform. You could now search the database with mobile and web browsers!
I found an interesting article on the wrecks at Britannia Beach. Some time soon I'd have to gather more information about them. I put together a very rough map of the site here.
Years ago, someone had put together a much better map. But that link long since stopped working. The red circle was the place to park by the highway. A trail led in to the red X, which was the entry point. Another entry existed across from the Galileo Coffee Company, but it was a bit harder to get in to. The wreck locations are not to scale, but provide a rough idea of where they are. The red stars are the location of the Project Baseline sites.
On the drive out, it was looking rough and choppy, and the weather report called for wind and rain. Thankfully it turned out to be a pretty darn good day. The snow was on the mountains!
The entry looked pretty good. A lot of logs, but doable.
In the water, Vlad and I were pleasantly surprised at the visibility. It was excellent! We actually measured 8 meters of vis, or roughtly 25 feet. Very good!
On the swim out, I found a welding mask on the bottom. I didn't get a picture, but I did ham it up for Vlad. Our funny picture opportunity was a phone we found. Here was Vald trying to make a call!
We swam past the CCGS Ready and explored a bit towards the north. We discovered a new wreck, the remains of a barge with a crane attachment. This was not there last year! It was less than 5 minutes past the Ready, at about 10 meters.
On the way, we came across a cute little octopus hiding in a tire.
At Station A, at the stern of the Ready, it was looking pretty good. The site had been installed over 4 years ago in 2014.
And here was the backside of the marker, note the cylindrical temperature sensor that we were there to recover.
Station B looked great too. Vlad posed for the camera.
There was plenty of life, with schools of perch, yellow nudibranchs, and giant dendronotids.
A fried egg jellyfish got caught by an anemone.
The visibility was the star. Here was Vlad inspecting the bridge of the Ready.
And the bow.
I noticed some evidence of sea star wasting. I submitted a report on this to the sea star wasting tracking page. Here was one with just a portion of an arm left.
Probably the most interesting discover we made was a very large and long concrete pipe leading off into the depths. This was very close the entry point, but we had never discovered it before! Clearly it deserved some exploration in the future.
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