10-1-2012 Sanctuary Cruises dives into the Submarine Realm

Captain Mike aboard the submarine Antipodes with sub pilot Randy

This week are venturing into the depths as we work as the support vessel for the submersible vessel Antipodes. This five-person submarine is owned by OceanGate and affliliated with the Open the Oceans educational foundation. They are making a visit to Monterey Bay in conjunction with the just completed Blue Ocean Film Festival. OceanGate asked Sanctuary Cruises to be their support vessel during this week of dives to a shipwreck off Point Pinos near Monterey. We jumped at the opportunity to be a part of this interesting project which takes out researchers, filmmakers, teachers and students to explore up to 300 foot depths on the edge of the Monterey Submarine Canyon. This is truly a “yellow submarine” and offers two large viewing bubbles for the fortunate participants. Yesterday’s dive showed a great abundance of marine life on the wreck of the Ridell which rests a few miles offshore from Point Pinos at a depth of 300 feet. Researchers reported an abundance of small octopi, tons of rockfish and lingcod and swarms of jellies. They surveyed the wreck using 2D sonar in preparation for tomorrow’s dive to conduct 3D sonar imaging. We’ll keep you posted as the dive days progress!

Regular whale watch trips resume this Saturday, October 6th at 10 am and run daily. Our humpback whale is still hanging around Moss Landing and Rissos dolphins are plentiful!

 

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