Oh that glorious mud-Project Aware checks out Toronto's bottom

If Project Aware has its way there will be no living with the scuba divers of Hogtown! The PADI driven eco-trust foundation is hoping to help sink a shipwreck on the door steps of Canada's largest urban centre. Toronto is a city that prides itself with having just about everything-hence the swinish nickname-however, Toronto has never been able to brag about its dive sites.

Toronto has the largest concentration of divers in the nation, but, there is precious little diving done in Lake Ontario waters around the port city. A June 4th submarine expedition involving the Canadian Navy, Project Aware and Ontario Place, is, according to Gene Hemsworth, president of PADI Canada, the first step to the creation of an artificial reef.

"The city is crying out for a diveable wreck," said Mr. Hemsworth. He told Diver Magazine that there are three shipwrecks near the city, however, due to depth, poor visibility and high boat traffic, the sites are not regularly visited by sport divers.

In explaining what Project Aware wanted to do, Mr. Hemsworth talked about the decommissioned Canadian warships that have already been sunk off the shores of both Nova Scotia and British Columbia to great effects. The downed destroyers offer scuba divers controlled wreck sites to explore. The large ships also create a habitat for game fish and other marine creatures.

Project Aware's early summer expedition involved HMCS Cormorant and its mini-sub SDL-1. The naval dive tender ship used it's submarine twice to explore the bottom of Lake Ontario. The sub looked at two potential lake sites where a ship could be safely sunk for the use of the dive community. Hubert Chretien, a member of Project Aware and son of Prime Minister Jean Chretien, lead one mission to the bottom; Gene Hemsworth spearheaded the other.

On both trips the investigative team examined the condition of the floor of the lake, measured visibility levels and studied currents. The actual sites had been selected by Ontario Underwater Council's Don McIntyre and a team of volunteer divers who had marked the sites prior to the arrival of the 245 foot long Naval Diving Vessel.

"One of the sites, south west of Ontario Place meets the objectives of the mission," said Stephen Blasco, the science officer on board the Cormorant and sediment expert with the Dartmouth, Nova Scotia based Geological Survey of Canada. "It had a rock and sand bottom at 100 feet, just the sort of lake bed that could hold a large shipwreck. We were showing a visibility of 20 feet and that would improve as you get closer to the surface."

And the second site? The expedition looked at a 100 foot deep underwater ridge south of the Toronto Islands. Project Aware had high hopes for the site, but, for two hours SDL-1 1 travelled above a lake bed covered in mud and slime, unsuitable for a wreck site.

"We weren't expecting that all," said Blasco. "The presence of sediment where our surveys show sand and rock indicate that there is something happening there that we don't know about-we (Geological Survey of Canada is part of the Federal Government's Natural Resources Canada) will certainly have to study this a bit further."

Blasco will have to investigate the waters around Toronto Island without the use of the Cormorant and SDL-1 1. The June expedition was the last voyage for the Cormorant, the ship scheduled to be retired upon its return to its home base in Nova Scotia later in the month. Canada purchased the vessel used from the Italian Navy in 1975.

It is estimated that there are 25,000 certified sport divers in Ontario, the majority of them live within the Greater Toronto Area. Project Aware is now looking at ways to raise the $500,000 needed to sink a ship near this large population centre.

"I'd love it if we could do it this fall," said Gene Hemsworth, "But, it is a lot of work-we have to raise the money, acquire a ship, clean it up and sink it. It could well have to wait until '98 or '99."

Author's Note: Project Aware is not the only organisation that feels that Ontario needs a new shipwreck. The town of Kincardine (Lake Huron) is exploring the possibility of using an old warship, or surplus war tanks to create a scuba site for visiting divers. And in the town of Sutton, Ontario well known diver Scott Williamson is hoping that a ship can be sunk in Lake Simcoe. Lake Simcoe, north of the city of Toronto, is a popular site for divers.

Salvaging century old Great Lakes' submerged logs!

Mention Great Lakes' diving and most people will immediately think of old wooden shipwrecks. However, in the Lake Superior region, many of the people who dive in this deep, cold lake are taking one step back from shipwrecks; and hunt ancient logs of the vintage that were used in the construction of 19th century barques and schooners.

Divers are finding and bringing back century old logs that sank to the bottom of Lake Superior in the heyday of the logging era (circa 1850). When the recovered timber is milled, an extremely fine-grained lumber emerges.

Superior Water-logged Lumber is a publicly traded corporation based in Ashland, Missouri. This firm has made a business out of finding the waterlogged wood, bringing it back to the surface, drying it and then processing it into usable lumber.

Superior Water-Logged Lumber Company's webpage explains why the new company scours the bottom of the largest Great Lakes looking for sunken timber. "This old, slow growth lumber is true virgin timber. It's the same vintage as the lumber used to make the fine antique furniture which is so valued today for its exquisite wood and excellent craftsmanship. And, best of all, this harvest of virgin timber is accomplished without the single stroke of an axe or the whine of a chain saw, every log we recover saves two to three live trees."

Superior Water-Logged is currently working with master musical instrument makers who want to make violins and guitars out of their "timeless timber".

Since sunken logs can be found throughout the Great Lakes region, divers on both sides of the border have begun to take note of the company's success. A sunken log newsgroup has been formed bflavell@hotmail.com on the Internet so that divers can compare notes on log recovery techniques. Superior Water-Logged Lumber Company maintains a webpage where would-be lakebottom lumber jacks can ask questions and get the latest news of Lake Superior's surprising underwater harvest.