Perhaps one of the greatest finds in Maritime History this century has happened right here in Pensacola Bay! Emily spent some time underwater for her Service Learning!
A blurb from her: By working on the wreck I have recently realized that we actually have a form of symbiosis with at least one of the bay inhabitants. We have a mutualistic relationship with a large sheepshead fish, it eats the barnacles off of our unit grids when we clean them, so it gets fed and we get clean grids that we won’t cut ourselves on. The archaeology performed at the site has also created new little ecosystems in the bay for various types of marine life. The grids and barge provide areas for barnacles to grow which in turn attract fish, and lots of different types of fish have made their homes within the many units that we are excavating and around our growing piles of ballast stones. There is so much marine life around the site that it is pretty common to suck up fish, shrimp, or crabs in the dredge, although we try as much as we can to avoid them. The pollution in the bay alongside the weather also affects our diving though. We have had to call dives early or cancel them entirely due to high levels of bacteria in the bay or low visibility due to high levels of sediments or particulates in the water. I subconsciously knew about all of these connections when I started diving, but I connected them more when I read about them in the chapters for this class.
A blurb from her: By working on the wreck I have recently realized that we actually have a form of symbiosis with at least one of the bay inhabitants. We have a mutualistic relationship with a large sheepshead fish, it eats the barnacles off of our unit grids when we clean them, so it gets fed and we get clean grids that we won’t cut ourselves on. The archaeology performed at the site has also created new little ecosystems in the bay for various types of marine life. The grids and barge provide areas for barnacles to grow which in turn attract fish, and lots of different types of fish have made their homes within the many units that we are excavating and around our growing piles of ballast stones. There is so much marine life around the site that it is pretty common to suck up fish, shrimp, or crabs in the dredge, although we try as much as we can to avoid them. The pollution in the bay alongside the weather also affects our diving though. We have had to call dives early or cancel them entirely due to high levels of bacteria in the bay or low visibility due to high levels of sediments or particulates in the water. I subconsciously knew about all of these connections when I started diving, but I connected them more when I read about them in the chapters for this class.
