Today, we went on our deep dive for class. Before we geared up we had a pre-dive meeting to talk about some of the risks. The point our instructors really stressed was our air. They had us walk a few lengths of the classroom equivalent to the depth of the dive while holding our breath. The purpose of this was to show us what it might feel like if we ran out of air while diving and still had to ascend. To prevent running out of air, we work in thirds meaning that we use a 1000 PSI of air on the descent and bottom time, a 1000 PSI for the ascent, and have a 1000 PSI reserve. We went over hand signals and talked about nitrogen narcosis. Nitrogen narcosis is the sensation similar to being under the influence of alcohol, which is caused by breathing air under higher pressure. When at depth, our dive leader had us do a simple math calculation to see if we were feeling the nitrogen narcosis. The simple calculation involved him holding up 0 to 5 fingers and we had to respond with the number to equal a total of five. I did not feel the effects of nitrogen narcosis but it was there. Anything over 70 feet, nitrogen narcosis is going to occur but everyone feels the effects differently.
We got to see the difference in the color because our dive leader took a card with different colors on it down with him to show us. All the colors appeared duller because less light is penetrating through the water. Red was especially affected.
The coral reef was beautiful and appeared healthier. As to why it appeared healthier, I am not sure. Obviously, conditions are different and factors that influence corals in the shallower depths may not affect corals at deeper depths. Or, It could be that there are fewer divers visiting the reef at deeper depths. I'm uncertain and our dive leader doesn't know the answer. I didn't see any different fish or coral species than when shallower. I would have loved to see a longsnout butterflyfish because they tend to live deeper than at the normal depths we have been diving at 50ft. I would love to go back down to that depth to explore more!
Overall, today was a ton of FUN!
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