1 December 2008
Scuba With Sharks in Utah
Posted by admin under: Outings .
When someone says Seabase I automatically think of Florida where the BSA high adventure camp is located. Gear Junkie, however, who writes for the New York Times, among others, has an article about a desert Seabase in Utah. It’s a fascinating article and a great resource for displaced coastal Scouts who want to strap on the tank and feed some fish. I recommend reading his article just for the novelty, but if you’re nearby you might want to check it out. The author sounds lukewarm about the experience as it compares to actual scuba in the ocean, but describes it as a unique experience nonetheless.
“Hope the sharks are hungry,” said Lynn Findlay, an employee, his hand outstretched and clenching raw meat. In the water below, from the pit of a saltwater spring called Habitat Bay, dark shapes were emerging from the deep.
Thousands of fish — from flitting minnows to a pair of nine-foot-long nurse sharks — live in the murky waters at Bonneville Seabase, an independent experiment in marine biology started 20 years ago by George Sanders and Linda Nelson, husband-and-wife scuba divers from Salt Lake City. After years of development costing them about a million dollars, they have created a private tropical-fish preserve off an empty road at 4,293 feet in a valley about 10 miles south of the Great Salt Lake.
It’s open to snorkelers and scuba divers four days a week, year round, for $15 a day.
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