7. February 2009 by alpenadiver.

Senator Carl Levin, and Congressmen Stupak, Kildee, and McCotter.  Have introduced bills into the Congress, and the House of Representatives (S-380, H.R. 905) to expand the boundaries of the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary.  This bill will increase the size of the Sanctuary from 448 sq. miles, to 3667 sq. miles or from the Northern Presque Isle county line to the Southern Alcona county line, and out to the International Boundary.

This in my opinion is a greatly needed expansion, the Alpena / Presque Isle area have some of the most pristine wrecks imaginable.  To name a few Cornelia B. Windiate, Kyle Spangler (recently announced), Florida, Norman, Audubon, Defiance.  NOAA also has a very good working relationship with the local community, and has done tremendous work on preserving the resources, and artifacts of the surrounding wrecks. Unlike shipwrecks in the Oceans which will disappear overtime, and the taking of artifacts is permitted,  here in fresh water the wrecks stay intact for hundreds of years. This should also help the surrounding areas in bringing in more tourists / divers.

Alpena News Article - Boundary Expansion

Congressman Stupak’s Letter

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6. February 2009 by alpenadiver.

As I woke up yesterday to a chilly ambient of –16 F, I started to reminisce of what I was doing a year ago.  On January 15 2008 I flew to Guam for a month of work, supporting a Navy exercise.  Of course I packed some of my dive gear because I had a plan, and that was to get in a lot of diving, which I did up to five dives a day.  Most of these were shore dives but they were awesome, especially of you like WWII era diving also the sealife was amazing, they covered everything from all the colorful fish, to turtles, and even a Manta Ray.  We would rent gear for $20.00 (BC, Weights, Fins, Tank), air fills were $3.50 for a neutral buoyant 100.  Then we would just drive looking for a place to dive, some of the sites we hit were Gab Gab Beach, Gun Beach, Haps Reef, Shark Pit just to name a few shore dives, we also did two charters, we dove American Tanker twice, Western Shoal, and the famous Blue Hole.  The greatest thing about diving in Guam was the water temp it stayed a constant 85 degrees no matter how deep you went, my deepest was 140 feet at Blue Hole still the temp was 85 just awesome.

We used Guam Tropical Dive Station specifically for our rentals, However when I told them of the Manta Ray sighting they just wouldn’t believe us, until I produced this picture.  They said “we dive here all the time and have never seen a Manta Ray on Guam” all I could do was smile, and get my tank refilled for another dive.  Ah yes just a year earlier I was warm.

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