Dive Team: Dave Miller, Matt Miller
Date: May 23, 2005
After a successful morning manatee hunt on Crystal River where we snorkeled nearly an hour with two adults and a baby manatee (Photo #1 & #2), the American Pro dive boat took us westward to Kings Bay. At a site called King Spring we did our first cavern dive. We dove down 35 feet to a reef that had hundreds of small fish. In the distance behind some large rocks was the entrance to the cavern. We descended, turned on our dive lights and entered the cavern. As we swam to the cavern’s maximum depth of 47 feet we saw many fossils embedded in the walls. One room of the cavern was called “Catfish Closet” as 4 large catfish hung out in a dark recessed hole. We swam to another room and turned off our dive lights creating a solid black labyrinth. Turning our lights back on we swam to another area of the cave where our divemaster showed us how to create a “air bubble hot springs”. In turn, we removed our air regulator from our mouth and blew bubbles of air watching them float to the top of the cave and “boil”.
