NMDE - Re-establish the benchmark at Patton Beach

Today NMDE divers Vanessa Belz and Martin McClellan ascended upon Patton Beach in Carnelian Bay on Lake Tahoe's north shore (39.22624,-120.07979) -  also now known as Watermans Landing.  In May of this year we established the benchmark in 37 ft directly in front of (north) the Patton Beach Fish - a 20 foot long, 8 foot high concrete fish that was discarded by the miniature golf course across the street prior to 2004 - when we first found it.  Sometime between May of this year and 9 November, 2013, someone decided to remove the benchmark and line leading to the fish and place all the equipment in about 15ft of water and leave it there.  At least they did not take it.  This equipment was found by another local diver and returned to us. 

Today, our goal is to reestablish the benchmark, and place additional line leading to the site.  The reason for the line is that the bottom composition of Patton Beach is basically featureless and since the fish is approximately 1200 feet from shore, it is a tough navigation and we wanted to make visiting our Project Baseline: Tahoe [http://projectbaseline.org/projects/usa/lake-tahoe] site easier. 

We scooted out on the surface to the approximate area and because the visibility was very good on this day, we were able to locate the fish very expeditiously as it sits in approximately 35 feet of water.  We descended, re measured the location of the benchmark and placed the 8" diamater auger back into the bottom about 16 inches.  This should hold.  Interesting where the benchmark was placed was an obvious pit in the bottom about 18" deep and about 3 feet in diameter.  Someone really had to work this out of the bottom so we hope that does not occur again.  Once the benchmark was placed, we assessed the depth, 35ft per the gauge on the benchmark and 56 degrees F on the temp gauge (this compared to 31feet on my digital gauge and 52 degrees F) - the difference is the gauges on the benchmark are older, analog for the depth gauge and a simple outside thermometer for temp.  After noting depth and temperature we assessed visibility which was at least 30feet but not 40feet.  We can tell this as we have visibility markers placed every 10feet starting at 20 feet from the benchmark.  If you can see the 3, which is 30 feet, which we could, and we could not see the 4, which is 40 feet, this gives us our visibility reading.  Importantly this is the exact same for any diver visiting the site keeping the information collected for Project Baseline: Tahoe,  scientifically valid.  Finally, we took our photo of the fish and then began the process of laying line. 

After attaching our line to the depth benchmark and providing a secondary tie-off, we headed 300 degrees to the nearest boat buoy.  We then ran the line directly into the beach at about 340 degrees along the debris field of old boat buoy anchors which consist of old concrete beams, motor blocks, 55 gallon drums filled with concrete, etc.  and lots of old boat parts.  We made kind of a nice debris pile to debris pile type of course.  Fun to dive and stuff to see. 

Our dive was 83 minutes to a maximum depth of 35 feet with an average depth of 18 feet. We saw no invasive plants or animals but encountered a fish cleaning station, right at the Patton Beach Fish, where fishing operations from the Marina adjacent to this site stop to clean their clients fish.  Thus, we saw lots of crayfish...bring a bag as we are certain that the local sportfishing companies know of this concrete fish. 

PBTahoe Stats:
Depth: 35 feet
Temp: 54f
Visibility: 30-40 feet
Photo:

Camp Richardson and The NUB Chara Bed Research September 8, 2013 [Phase 2 - Dive 7]

Again, under the flag of Project Baseline: Tahoe, we were asked to volunteer our dive skills and time to assist the University of Nevada Reno's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science complete its study the Chara Beds of South Lake Tahoe on the Nub and off Camp Richardson. Here is a link to the Phase 2 Project Report:

          Project Report Phase 2

A video of Dive 7 of this phase can be found at this link:

         Camp Richardson Chara Bed - Video Report

Camp Richardson and The NUB Chara Bed Research June 1 - June 29 [Phase 1- Dives 1-6]

Under the flag of Project Baseline: Tahoe, we were asked to volunteer our dive skills and time to assist the University of Nevada Reno's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science study the Chara Beds of South Lake Tahoe on the Nub and off Camp Richardson.  This is ongoing work in the Nearshore water zone of Lake Tahoe.  Here is a link to the Phase 1 Project Report:

          Project Report Phase 1

A video of Dive 6 of this phase can be found at this link:

          Camp Richardson Chara Bed - Video Report

Establish the Patton Beach/Watermans Landing Project Baseline Site

The Patton Beach Fish (we should probably give it a name?) presently sits in 37 feet of water, is covered in algae, is deteriorating (from our first encounter in 2004) but still sits majestically creating a great dive site. 

 

Today's dive was conducted to establish the depth benchmark, temperature gauge and visibility markers at the Patton Beach Fish.  Upon 102 minutes in the water at a maximum depth of 37 feet, the site was successfully established. 

 

The Fish sits about 1200' off shore at a bearing of approximately 150 degrees. 

A couple of notes:

1) This is right in the boating lane coming out of the marina and gas dock. Take a flag with you – you can clip it to the depth benchmark. We had several boats pass overhead and were glad we had our surface station and flag present.

2) We are going to need some help from the dive community in maintaining this site.

a. First we tried to run the line over and under logs and rocks to keep it low to the ground so as to avoid being hooked by a recreational boat anchors. So keep an eye and add debris along the line to keep it down. Remember though not to push the line into the sand so that a storm will cover it. Where you put something on the line to anchor it, put something under the line around your debris anchor to keep it about 1 – 2 inches above the sand.

b. Second, periodically clean the line; it will get covered in algae.

c. Finally, please let us know if the line goes missing… we have more and will go up and reestablish the line. (nmde@att.net)

 

Project Baseline Stats

Depth: 37 feet

Temp: 58 f

Visibility: 30 - 40 feet

Photo:

 

 

Project Baseline: Tahoe - Sand Harbor - Evaluation by Gerald De Vore

Project Baseline Stats:

Depth: 20 feet

Temp: 54f

Visibility: 40 - 50 feet

Photo:

 

 

 

Photos by Jerry De Vore     

 

 

Of Note:  By 10 November, the Tahoe Sucker fish school that has been at a depth of 54 feet near the tree on the inner wall of Divers Cove have left. This school had been hanging out in the same area since July of this year - 11 November, 2012: Jerry DeVore.

Project Baseline Tahoe Community Report

Observation Date:	14 October, 2012
Dive Team Members:	xx
Begin Time:xx	End Time:xx        Bottom Time: xx
Weather Conditions:	clear
Wind	Direction : N/A   Speed: N/A  Duration: N/A
Water Conditions
Surface	flat
Last 24 hrs:	Calm
Temperature:	Surface- 68 At Depth- Site Gauge- xx    Diver Gauge- xx
Visibility:	Vertical-xx      Horizontal- 50 +
Current:	Direction-N/A  Speed- N/A
Site Depth Benchmark reading (Per the site gauge): 22 ffw     Dive Team Gauge:  #1- 19 ffw     #2- 21ffw
Animal & Plant Life
Fin Fish	Very populas Shiners, Suckers, Dace and Trout
Copepod	Est. Density: Low
Invasive Species	N/A
Mysis Shrimp	Est. Density: Low
Team Observations/Comments: Today the Project Baseline Staff, tabled at Sand Harbor and discussed with over 50 divers the efforts going on in Tahoe.  It was extremely productive and we had several divers report that our depth benchmark was still at 22', their gauges varied by plus or minus 2 feet, temp was 68 on our depth benchmark and that the visibility was at or better than 50 feet during the first dive.  This was an abnormally warm, calm October day surrounded by some rain storms earlier in the week but for the most part, very calm atmosphere from Thursday thru this day which was Sunday.

Project Baseline, Hurricane Bay, Tahoe October 13, 2012

Observation Date:	13 October, 2012
Dive Team Members:	Mike Soldswich, Marc Briseno,  Martin McClellan
Begin Time: 10:45am	End Time:11:55am        Bottom Time: 50min
Weather Conditions:	Clear Calm 58f
Wind	Direction : n/a Speed: n/a Duration: n/a
Water Conditions
Surface	Flat Calm with some small surface ripples - Boat Wake present
Last 24 hrs:	Calm with no wind
Temperature:	Surface- 66f At Depth- 62 Site Gauge- 62    Diver Gauge- 62
Visibility:	Vertical- 30 minus      Horizontal- 20 - 30ft
Current:	Direction-N?A Speed-N/A
Site Depth Benchmark reading (Per the site gauge): 62 ffw     Dive Team Gauge:  #1- 59 ffw     #2- 60ffw
Animal & Plant Life
Fin Fish	Description : Lahotan Shiners Quantity: large schools 100+
Copepod	Est. Density: Low
Invasive Species	None Present
Mysis Shrimp	Est. Density: Low
Team Observations/Comments: Today, NMDE divers established the PBTahoe site in Hurricane Bay at the site of the Alley Cat, a 30+ foot sail boat that sank some 10 years ago.  We also cleaned off a 1 meter square area of the Alley Cat's hull from algae and debris and took some photos of the Hurricane Bay site under water.  Following the set-up of the site depth/temperature/visibility metering devices, we scootered south along the 40 - 60 foot contour and noticed a very active crayfish community, many shiners but did not see any trout, suckers, or other fin fish.  We failed to notice copepod or mysis shrimp but that said, there was probably a very small population however I personally saw the biggest Paiute Sculpin I have ever seen.  Crusing the contours at between 40 and 60 feet provided no improvement in the 20 - 30 foot visibility. PB Tahoe stats: Depth: 62 feet Temp: 62f Visibility: 20-30 feet Photo: