The “Tortugas” is a fabulous wreck dive off Miami.

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SEAVENGER_T110

On a vacation to Miami, a couple decides to wreck dive the “Tortugas.”  Coincidentally, they find a dive mask called Tortuga, and another model with tinted lenses. They also see a torch called the T110, also made by IST.
My wife and I were on vacation in Miami visiting a friend, and heard about a wreck dive destination called “the Tortugas.”
The presence of a shipwreck in deep waters off the Dry Tortugas, a group of islands located at the westernmost point of the Florida Keys, first gained attention in 1965 when the shrimp trawler Trade Winds snagged in its nets various metal artifacts, pieces of ship’s rigging and an ornately carved railing. Also ensnared were three large intact pottery amphorae later identified as colonial-era Spanish olive jars used for the storage and shipment of various goods.
At the time, the depth of the water made exploration of the site impractical.  Located over 1,300 feet (405 meters) below the ocean surface, the “Tortugas” wreck was later discovered by Odyssey Marine Exploration co-founders and deep-ocean shipwreck exploration pioneers, Greg Stemm and John Morris.

Historically, the “Tortugas” excavation was the world’s first deep-ocean remotely-operated archaeological excavation of a shipwreck site. Nearly 17,000 artifacts, including some as small as seeds and pearls, were recovered from the site during the 1990-1991 excavation seasons. Research suggests the “Tortugas” wreck is likely the remains of the 117-ton Buen Jesus Nuestra Senor de Rosario, one of the vessels sailing with the 1622 Tierra Firme treasure fleet bound for Spain loaded with the wealth of the New World.
Before we went, we needed to purchase the right dive mask.   Unbelievably enough, we found one called the Tortuga traditional single lens dive mask in rubber and silicone, and another mask called the Panorama metal aluminum scuba dive mask with tinted lenses. We opted for the Tortuga since after all, that was where we were diving.  Also, the Tortuga is a classic mask, just like Lloyd Bridges wore in Sea Hunt.

While we were inside the Tortuga, don’t ask me where exactly it was, there was around 100 ft or so away from us a light going on. If it had been just a light we wouldn’t be so shocked. But this light was so extremely bright that we almost freaked out. We have never seen such a light before. As the light came close to us we saw what was behind it:  A regular diver like us.

We were trying to communicate to him and he showed us the brand that was labeled on the light and he fingered us the model.  Coincidentally enough, it turned out to be a T110 Primary Canister Torch made by the same company that makes the Tortuga, and also Panorama masks, IST Sports.
The Dolphin Tech T110 660 Lumens canister light generates a super-bright light beam well-suited for advanced or night diving, wreck diving and even the darkest cave exploration. We later found out that in ScubaLab testing, its three LEDs produced a highly- intense 12-inch diameter hotspot, thereby matching the brightest light they had ever tested
Later that day we came up with what went through our minds when we saw this blaze. From Out-of-Space aliens to the ship is alive we thought of everything. We laughed a lot after that, and wondered whether we should have bought the  Panorama mask with tinted lenses.  It might have blocked some of the intensity of the T110 Torch’s beam.

With the right bifocal dive mask, I can attain all my diving goals.

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Bifocal-mask

Interestingly enough, all my scuba diving goals were dependent upon getting a prescription dive mask. After that purchase, sky and ocean were the limit.
Every diver has a few goals that he or she wants to attain. Perhaps it is to shark dive in a cage. Even better, perhaps it is to shark dive with the sharks outside a cage. Perhaps it is to shipwreck dive in the Red Sea down to the very famous Thistlegorm wreck with all its trucks and motorcycles still intact. Early on, I realized I’d need a prescription dive mask to see all these great things.  I found a great bifocal prescription diving mask made by Tilos called the Hawk Eyes.
I also recently added some expensive underwater camera equipment to my scuba gear equipment so I’d like to photograph this shipwreck, of course.  Also, my goal is to photograph a bull-ring of West Coast lobsters. And I’d also like to photograph some Giant Sea Bass. They’re really amazing! There’s been a moratorium on spearing them since 1982 because fishermen were spearing hundreds of of them. Of course they were!   People just love killing living things in the great outdoors.

I dove down recently, banged some rocks together and about nine of them swam over. One looked familiar; I had seen his torn tail before. He came right up to my mask! In this case, the mask he came up to was the twin lens metal aluminum scuba dive mask. Unless I am mistaken, the fish seemed very impressed with this mask. In fact, I bought it from a great online dealer that carries a great selection.
I have yet to attain some of my dive goals, such as cage shark diving, but I am sure to do  so now that I have the right bifocal dive mask.

Fish are not fooled by spearfishers in camouflage.

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camo spearfisher

Spearfishers have camouflage gear to equip themselves with. Starting with dive socks there are camouflage wetsuits, camouflage masks, camouflage snorkels and everything in between.  Does all this gear do anything except look cool and make the spearfisher feel like a real hunter?
Spearfishing has been around ever since that first hungry prehistoric man saw a fish, and looked around for something sharp with which to kill it. Thus, early civilizations became familiar with spearing fish from rivers and streams using sharpened sticks.
Afterwards, prehistoric men got the idea that if  they disguised themselves, the fish’d be fooled, and therefore easier to spear.  They looked around for leaves and stuff to disguise themselves.  That idea has persisted until today.

Nowadays, there are dive shops that stock everything from camouflage spearguns, to camouflage wetsuits, camouflage dive masks, camouflage snorkels and dive socks.
Today, spearfishing guns consist of elastic powered and slings, or compressed gas pneumatic powered spearguns. Specialized techniques and equipment have been developed for various types of aquatic environments and target fish.

Spearfishing purists use free-diving or snorkeling equipment. Others use scuba diving techniques. However, mechanically-powered spearguns are outlawed in some countries. Other rules stipulate that divers must be completely submerged when firing their guns, and that fish must not be in an artificial environment such as penned in bays. Otherwise, divers are free to indulge in man’s favorite occupation: killing things in their natural environment with equipment that far exceeds their prey’s ability to protect themselves.

The most common and easiest of all types of spearfishing is entering and exiting the sea from the beach or shore, and hunting around ocean structures, usually reef, but also rocks, kelp or sand. Usually, shore divers hunt at depths of 16 to 80 ft In the South Pacific, for instance, divers can experience drop-offs from 16 to 130 ft close to the shore line. Sharks and reef fish can be abundant in these locations. In subtropical areas, sharks may be less common, but other challenges exist such as managing entry, exit and surf. Shore diving can be done with trigger-less spears such as pole spears or ‘Hawaiian slings,’ but more commonly triggered devices such as spearguns.

From  the fish’s perspective:  Scuba divers like to dress up in their silly little camouflage wetsuits, camouflage gloves, camouflaged camouflage, and actually think fish are fooled. They’re not. If you look closely, you can actually see the fish laughing at the divers in their completely ridiculous outfits, including the aforementioned camouflage socks.