AD 2016 Q3

16 knots, which allowed the team to sneak in dives whenever an appropriate
weather window presented itself, which was not very often. South of
Newfoundland’s Grand Banks and still susceptible to many of the weather
patterns that can create very dangerous conditions (remember The Perfect
Storm?), we spent many days waiting. Over three years of diving, we made
it out on only six of the approximately 30 potential days and were rarely out
for more than a single overnight at a time. But in the many hours of sitting
at the dock or in a quaint little home in York Harbor, Maine, I met and
listened to a passionate coastal biologist who has become the heart and soul
of Cashes Ledge: Brown University biology professor Jon Witman, Ph.D.
Cashes Ledge would likely be little more than a name on the charts if not
for Witman. He and his team began diving and studying the biodiversity
GRAND CAYMAN: SEVEN MILE BEACH
Lighthouse Point
Oceanfront Condos / Divetech
Unlimited Shore Diving
Free Beverages at Check-In
$1,190 pp/qd
GRAND CAYMAN: EAST END
Compass Point Dive Resort
Ocean Frontiers
Car Rental Included*
Breakfast Daily
$1,250 pp/qd or $1,510 pp/db
GRAND CAYMAN: WEST BAY
Cobalt Coast Dive Resort
Reef Divers
Breakfast and Dinner Daily
Use of Dive Computer
$1,405 pp/db
CAYMAN BRAC
Cayman Brac Beach Resort
Reef Divers
All Meals • Cocktail Reception
$1,325 pp/db
there in the 1980s, and what they found astounded them. They likened it to
a time capsule from the 17 th century — the cod were often as big as divers
and were more plentiful there than anywhere else they had studied — as
plentiful as in some of the early Pilgrim settlement accounts.
Compared with other coastal regions in the 1980s, Cashes Ledge was an
outlier, in a good way, and word soon got out. By the late 1990s destructive
fishing practices had devastated the area, and fish populations were collapsing.
Laudably, the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) imposed
a ban on the most detrimental practices — bottom trawling and dredging —
though it left the area open to others such as midwater trawling. With the ban
in place, the populations have slowly started to rebound.
Hearing Witman tell stories about Cashes Ledge in the ’80s — when
schools of cod, pollock, cunner and other fish could be seen with myriad
sharks, whales and other pelagics among the kelp — was both poetic and
disheartening. He had the privilege of studying Cashes in its modern heyday,
and he helplessly watched its subsequent destruction to the brink of collapse.
Now he is documenting and quantifying its recovery with the help of CLF.
The recovery, however, is not guaranteed; the ledge could be opened to all
fishing and other exploitative activities at any time. CLF’s mission was clear:
They wanted to showcase the underwater world through imagery to reveal
the magic of the ledge today and its potential for tomorrow.
Diving Cashes Ledge had been built up so much in my mind by Lamar,
Skerry, Brooks and Witman that I was afraid it might be a letdown, like
so many underwater places are these days. But it was a surreal dream of
swaying kelp, playful cod, schools of pollock skirting the edge of vision and
scenes of life I could barely have imagined. My eyes never left the camera
Contact your local dive shop or
Caradonna Dive Adventures
to book today!
800-328-2288
sales@caradonna.com
All packages include 7 nights, 6 days of 2-tank boat dives
(unless otherwise noted), airport transfers, taxes and
service charges. *Rental pickup at airport, no transfers.
Rates are per person, double or quad occupancy as
noted and subject to availability and standard terms and
conditions. Valid for select dates in 2016.
CSOT#2111993-40 • WSOT#603254369 • FSOT#38781
Elly Wray
ALERTDIVER.COM | 21