Went for a little walk-about today to see what lake Michigan was up too! It was obvious that there would be NO scuba diving today or for quite awhile.
St. Joseph Piers in Ice
Category Archives: Water-Related
Glenlord Beach Overlook
Tankful Tuesday – Michigan Underwater Divers Club
Tankful Tuesday – Michigan Underwater Divers Club (AKA: MUD Club)
Niles River Dive Grubbing Dive – Pictures say it all!
2020 MUD Club Annual New Year’s Night Dive
December 31, 2019 – January 1, 2020:
This New Years Eve midnight dive was performed in the Saint Joseph river, off Riverview Park in Niles Michigan.
We were blessed with snow, a bit of ice, warm temperatures (~28F) and no wind during last night’s celebration dive. The visibility was like diving in pea soup and if you took your high intensity light, right against your pressure gauge, pressing against your mask, could almost read it 😊
The river current was fast, so we secured a line from the walkway, hanging into the water the length of the dive path and stayed parallel to it. A little later, after midnight, a few divers may have strayed out a little bit with their river sticks seeking out what treasures might be hiding on the bottoms surface.
We had great shore support and always appreciate those who turn out to help us do the dives. Having the “Toy” box (covered trailer), propane heaters and lighting also make a big difference in safety and comfort.
Happy New Year 2020 from the Mud Club!
Today’s Walk About – From the Air and on the Ground!
December 19, 2020 – Michigan Shipwrecks Story Map
This was sent out to the Michigan Underwater Preserve Council (MUPC) delegates, but it’s worth sharing more widely. Please check out the Michigan Shipwrecks Story Map and share it with friends.
Thanks,
Delegates,
The DNR Marketing people arranged for a shorter URL for access to shipwreck info, including the Story Map.
Use Michigan.gov/ExploreShipwrecks to direct people to
the shipwrecks landing page.
Please share this widely. Send any constructive feedback on the page (data corrections, errors, etc) to me to pass back to our Marketing contacts.
If you notice an included dive-site does not include photos (afloat, sunk) and you happen to have one to share, please pass it along to me. Include the photographer’s name for credit.
We’d like to have photos for every site eventually.
We’d also like to know about any other sites (150-ft depth or shallower) that we could include on this map, especially shallow sites suitable for snorkeling, kayaks, and beginning divers.
We’re trying to entice new people into diving, a step at a time if necessary.
Thanks, Dan Friedhoff
(Straits of Mackinac Shipwreck Preserve & Michigan U/W Preserve Council)
Oct 19 – Fly Day Walkabout
This was a nice day for flying and just generally cruising around. Sometimes the pictures I take are of the same general area’s but at different times of the year so one can see the differences, especially when comparing them to pictures from years ago.
Sites to be seen on the road between airports
There were still sites to see other than Fly-In’s and airplanes this Saturday. Here are a few other pictures of the sites in between airports.
Interesting Lawn Art (Between Dowagiac & Niles, MI)
Dowagiac River Dam was scheduled to be removed 2018. But obviously NOT yet!
This is the Berrien Springs bridge on old US 31 crossing the St. Joseph river. Up stream to the right is the Berrien Springs Hydroelectric Dam
Old dump site- as the storm waters flow past they uncover “possible” hidden treasures.
Glass and ceramic shards abound.
By the way, Its not often you drive around a small town and find an Army Tank as a lawn ornament.
“Tanks” for looking
Black River – South Haven Recovery Dive
As this site is called “On the Hunt for Treasure” today was one of those special days where I actually got to go out looking for some. Jim, the manager of Wolfs Marine Dive Shop in Benton Harbor, had gotten a call looking for some one to recover a lost ring. Since Jim was not wanting to dive this day he gave me a call to see if I was interested. Yep! I was.
So on Tuesday we drove up to South Haven Mi to see how accurate the rings owner was in placing an X in the river to mark the splash site. The river waters feeding Lake Michigan have been fast and high this summer and the Black river flowing thru South Haven was no exception. In fact the Black River had a very notable seiche this year which was a temporary disturbance in the water level caused by changes in atmospheric pressure. It actually pushed up the already high water lever to flood the docks.
The river takes its name from the dark brown color of its water, which is caused by suspended sediments and organic materials picked up along its course. The river supports a variety of wildlife including trout, snapping turtles, leeches, and many other varieties of flora and fauna. What this sediments & organic material means to a diver is the visibility is going to be poor to non-existent. I was not disappointed!
If you have ever lost something in the water from swimming or from a dock, pier, or boat its often very hard to really say exactly where the splash really was so you make a mental X on the water. From vast experience that X on moving water is just that, a moving target.
So the rings owner showed me where he was on the boat, how the ring was lost, and where he believes it went splash. So, I handed him a penny and said to throw it in at the splash area. He did so and noted that the penny splash was pretty close to the splash point. So I then took the remaining 9 pennies from my pocket and threw them in at this new splash point. Jim helped me suit up and enter the water from shore then positioned a drop weight and line from the back boat platform establishing a defined reference point.
Swam up to Jim on the platform, checked buoyancy and then Jim handed me my metal detector. Once on the bottom I started my search. Locating my first penny I knew I was in the proper area. Then I found three more pennies and then BINGO, the ring.
As you can see in the photo he was VERY pleased with the outcome and was darn lucky. The area where the ring was in was clear of junk and was mostly silty mud. A couple feet in any other direction the bottom turned to a junk yard of every thing especially rusty metal. If it had been in that area finding that ring would have been almost impossible to find, if found at all. The owner was happy and I was happy. A good ending for us all.
Saint Joseph River- Niles Drift Dive
Aug 30: Diving the Saint Joseph River – Niles, MI
The specific reason for today’s dive in the St. Joseph river was to determine if there were enough items/ trash to support the need for a 2019 Ecology Dive.
We explored the right side for the river as it flows downstream from the upper Bond street park and boat launch down to and under the Grant and West Main street bridges all the way down to the kayak launch behind the Wonderland theater.
Today the visibility averaged 3 feet in most areas of the river. There were a number of fallen trees and debris in many places near shore and out to deeper water that were definite snag, impalement, and entanglement hazards.
The current in many areas was manageable, especially if using a river stick, BUT in several areas approaching the bridges and bends in the river the current was very fast, and you had little control of your movement or path.
We have determined that the river conditions are hazardous for the inexperienced river diver and there is no way we can mitigate these risks and feel comfortable with inviting divers to dive this section of river at this time.
Based on these safety issues the Michigan U/W Divers club is NOT going to have the planned September 2019 Ecology Dive in Niles this year.
With that said, If you need a cell phone just dive the St. Joseph River in Niles. Recovered 4 in today’s drift dive. Almost 5 except the fisherman on the docks went in the water to get his after he dropped it.
